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traiTEDSTATESOFAMEBICA. 



THE TRUE PATH, 



OR THE 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 



IN A SERIES OF LECTURES. 



BY THE 

Bev. JOSEPH M. ATKINSON. 

RALEIGH, N. C. 




PHILADELPHIA: 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 
No. 821 Chestnut Street. 



f9 



,iY\ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 

JAMES DUNLAP, Tbbas. 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District 
of Pennsylvania. 

STEREOTYPED Bt WILLIAM W. HARDING PHILADELPHIA. 



Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, 
while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, 
when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Eec. xii. 1. 

And the king said, Is the young man safe? 2 Sam. 
xviii. 29. 

Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way ? By 
taking heed thereto according to thy word. Ps. cxix. 9. 

Run and speak to that young man. Zech. ii. 4. 

Thy creatures have been my books, but thy Scriptures 
much more. I have sought thee in the courts, fields, and 
gardens, but I have found thee in thy temples. — Lord 
Bacon. 

The end of learning is to repair the ruins of our first 
parents, by regaining to know God aright, and out of that 
knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as 
we may the nearest, by possessing our souls of true virtue, 
which, being united to the heavenly grace of faith, makes 
up the highest perfection. — John Milton. 

That religion must needs be worth looking into, which 
so many wise and excellent men do so much value above 
their lives and fortunes. — Jeremy Taylor. 

(3) 



TO 

Kev. JOHN M. P. ATKINSON, D. D., 

PRESIDENT OF HAMPDEN SIDNEY COLLEGE, VA. 

THE PACT, THAT YOU HAVE BEEN CALLED IN THE PROVIDENCE OP 
GOD, TO PRESIDE OVER THE INTERESTS AND DESTINIES OP 
ONE OP THE MOST ANCIENT AND NOT THE LEAST HON- 
OURED AND USEFUL OP THE COLLEGES OP OUR 
NATIVE STATE, WOULD SEEM TO RENDER 
THE DEDICATION OP THIS VOLUME TO 
YOU, A THING NOT LESS PROPER 
IN ITSELF, THAN GRATEFUL 
TO MY OWN FEELINGS. 

1* (5) 



CONTENTS. 



LECTURE I. 

PAGE 

Introductory — divine revelation — general statement of its claims 
and aspects 11 

LECTURE II. 

Divine revelation specially suited to the nature and needs of 
the soul 36 

LECTURE III. 
Transcendent nature of the doctrines of divine revelation 55 

LECTURE IV. 
The sentimental and the scriptural theologies 72 

LECTURE V. 
Relation of reason to revelation 94 

LECTURE VI. 
Apparent discrepancies touching justification 117 

LECTURE VII. 
The christian religion, the leaven of life 137 

(7) 



8 CONTENTS. 

LECTURE VIII. 

PAQB 

Christ, the burden of prophecy 167 

LECTURE IX. 
Christ, considered as our example 191 

LECTURE X. 
The christian graces, the highest human virtues 211 

LECTURE XL 
The glory of God, the end of our existence 230 

LECTURE XII. 
The providence of God in the common affairs of life 249 

LECTURE XIII. 
Sovereign grace, the sinner's hope 267 

LECTURE XIV. 
The new heavens and the new earth 283 



PREFACE. 



The rapid multiplication of Young Men's Christian 
Associations is a noticeable fact of the age. It at once 
indicates a disease, and furnishes at least a partial remedy. 
The disease is the unnatural and perilous aggregation of 
young men in cities and villages in which the temptations 
to extravagance, dissipation, and vice peculiarly abound ; 
and in which the restraining and meliorating influences 
of domestic life are in many instances wholly unknown. 
The remedy is a counter-movement of Christian benevo- 
lence, which seeks out such — throws around them the 
guards of sympathy and virtue ; leads them to the sanc- 
tuary of God ; and gives them access to select periodicals, 
books, and newspapers. 

The happy influence of such associations, when rightly 
constituted and conducted, and rigidly confined to their 
proper sphere, can hardly be over-estimated ; and it is 
with a view to their special needs and uses, that this book 
has been prepared. 

I have aimed to adapt it to them, and to young men 
of whom the number is very great and perpetually in- 
creasing, who are pursuing a course of liberal study in 
high schools, academies, and colleges. 

In its style and structure, I have endeavoured to make 
it attractive to cultivated young men ; and at the same 

(9) 



10 PREFACE. 

time, render it intelligible to those who have never been 
much conversant with moral and metaphysical enquiries. 

The staple of the book is- the doctrines of Evangelical 
Protestant Theology, as opposed to the perversions of 
Popery on the one side, and the negations and errors of 
Rationalistic infidelity on the other. 

There are few, if any, detailed discussions of particular 
vices, not only because such discussions are found in 
sufficient plenty elsewhere — in Sermons and Lectures 
addressed to young men — but because my endeavour has 
been to develope, and inculcate principles, which, cordially 
adopted and acted on, would cut off all particular vices ; 
implant and nourish all particular virtues. General prin- 
ciples bear the same relation to particular precepts, which 
Algebra bears to Arithmetic ; the formula applied in 
the solution of a particular problem, embracing any number 
of problems of like conditions. 

I am persuaded that the body of virtue is one, and the 
life of virtue one ; that all particular virtues flow from 
the one comprehensive principle of obedience to God, 
founded on love ; and that the avoidance of all particular 
vices flows from the operation of the fear of God, founded 
on faith, fixed in the heart and ruling the life with im- 
perial sway. 

I have endeavoured, so far as it extends, to make it such 
a book, as I now feel would have been useful to me when 
a young man in college ; and such a book as a Christian 
parent might put into the hands of a son, not only with 
confidence that its teachings were scriptural, but with the 
hope that, with the blessing of God, they might be saving. 
If it shall be the means of confirming any young disciple in 
" the faith once delivered ;" or in rescuing any from the 
deadly delusions of prevalent forms of infidelity, I shall 
have abundant cause for thanksgiving in the attainment 
of the end for which it was written. 



THE TRUE PATH, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 



LECTURE I. 



INTRODUCTORY — DIVINE REVELATION — GENERAL 
STATEMENT OP ITS CLAIMS AND ASPECTS. 

God has graciously revealed all necessary truth, 
in the gospel of his Son. He has fully unfolded a 
costly and magnificent scheme of redemption, in 
which his own glory and the salvation of the be- 
liever, are identified and secured. The Lord Jesus 
Christ as the Author and the Finisher of our faith, with 
obedience as its test, holiness as its fruit, and sal- 
vation as its end, is offered to all men on every 
page. The wickedness and folly of those who re- 
fuse and rebel, are condemned in the strongest 
terms. Total indifference, the most unreasonable, 
the most common, and the most fatal species of in- 
fatuation, is made matter of particular mention and 

(11) 



12 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

vehement rebuke. Speaking by the mouth of the 
wisest of men, he says: "To you, men, I call; 
and my voice is to the sons of men. Hear, for I 
will speak of excellent things, and the opening of 
my mouth shall be right things/ ' Prov. viii. 4, 6. 
Seeming even to mourn over the obstinate disobe- 
dience of his chosen people, he addresses them by 
the lips of Isaiah, in these singular terms, u Oh ! that 
thou hadst hearkened to my commandments ! then 
had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness 
as the waves of the sea." Isaiah xlviii. 18. 

Inattention to the paramount claims of divine 
revelation may be traced ultimately to a wilful and 
guilty ignorance. The transcendent importance of 
.the subject; the everlasting issues depending on a 
right decision ; the favourable verdict of the most 
powerful and independent minds that have yet arisen 
among the most enlightened nations; the willing 
homage of Bacon, Milton, Newton, Locke, and Boyle, 
to the solid foundation of its claims, have not been 
sufficient to arrest the anxious attention of the 
larger portion of mankind. 

The more profound our examination, and the more 
extended our knowledge of the system of Religion 
revealed in the Bible, the more assured will be our 
conviction that it came from God ; and that it has 
divine power to enlighten, to console, to sanctify, 
and to save. Systems of man's device may be ex- 
posed by an intelligent and thorough scrutiny ; but 
that plan of salvation which descended from heaven, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 13 

and is recorded in the book of God, has nothing to 
dread from the most searching examination. 

Excluding, for a moment, the retributions of 
eternity, and regarding only its historical influence 
and the magnitude of its claims, this system de- 
serves the attention of wise and thoughtful men. 
Its enemies themselves being judges, it is a powerful 
agent and has effected immense results. It has not 
failed to mould the character of every people, among 
whom it has obtained a transient footing, even in a 
corrupted form. It has given tone to the laws, to 
the civil institutions, and to the social usages of 
every civilized state. The code of Moses has 
formed the basis of the code of Christendom, and 
especially of the legal system which prevails in this 
country and in Great Britain, the foremost nations 
in all the world, in the elements and the fruits of 
moral greatness. 

From the period of its first appearance, it has 
been charged, and not unjustly, with being exclusive. 
It cannot, like the tolerant and easy systems of 
Paganism, bear a competitor. Wherever it prevails, 
and just so far as it prevails, every idolatrous rival 
must be thrown to the moles and to the bats. Not 
content with setting forth its own claims to the be- 
lief and obedience of mankind, it denounces every 
other system of salvation as delusive, and proclaims 
every other god, than Jehovah, false. In this the 
New Testament is not less uncompromising than 
the Old. It says, " If any man love not the Lord 
2 



14 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maranatha ;" 
1 Cor. xvi. 22 ; that " there is none other name under 
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved ;" 
Acts iv. 12 ; that every other refuge is a refuge of 
lies, which will be swept away when He shall rise 
up in the fierceness of his wrath, and be destroyed 
with the brightness of his coming. It aims at noth- 
ing less than setting up an interior dominion in the 
heart of man ; bringing every thought into captivity 
to the obedience of Christ ; planting an incorruptible 
seed in the soul, which is constantly to grow in 
power, until finally it shall pervade and sanctify 
every faculty ; yielding precious fruits : holiness in 
life ; peace in death ; and happiness in heaven. No 
sovereignty ever known among men by the articulate 
confession of one of the very greatest of earthly 
sovereigns — Napoleon — can be compared either in 
the completeness or in the permanence of its sway 
with that kingdom which its divine Founder declared 
not to be of this world. 

That which gives coherence, clearness, and com- 
pleteness to the whole Bible — to the Old Testament 
not less than to the New ; and binds the whole 
together with the golden chain of unity, is the 
marvellous testimony which it delivers in type and 
symbol — in prophecy and history — to the person, 
work, and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, Im- 
manuel, God manifest in the flesh for our salvation. 
Strike Christ from the Bible and it is like striking 
the sun from our system ; all is darkness and con- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 15 

fusion ; the vacuity and emptiness of the original 
chaos ! As formed in the heart of the believer, he 
is the hope of glory ; as in the infinite effulgence of 
his exalted person, he is the light of the heavenly 
temple ; so the revealed Redeemer of God's elect is 
the sun of the inspired Scriptures. The facts con- 
nected with him render the doctrines and declara- 
tions of the whole Bible, clear and harmonious ; 
hence it happens that they who deny his divine 
claims, and degrade his divine person, are inevitably 
forced to deny other truths, and often lapse by 
degrees into the fathomless abyss of Atheism. The 
only schemes of theology self-consistent throughout 
are evangelical Christianity at the one pole, and 
absolute atheism at the other. Every intermediate 
system is a compromise and a contradiction. 

The one great fact to which all the Apostles bear 
witness with united voice is, that Jesus Christ came 
into the world to save sinners ; that he "who being 
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be 
equal with God, made himself of no reputation, and 
took upon him the form of a servant, and was made 
in the likeness of men ; and being found in fashion 
as a man, humbled himself and became obedient 
unto death, even the death of the cross." Phil. ii. 6 
-8. This is in brief, the sum of their testimony. 
To this they were divinely constituted witnesses. 
And if the ministers of Christ now would have the 
same success, they must bear a faithful testimony 
to the same truth. The great doctrines of atone- 



16 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

ment by the precious blood of the Lamb of God ; 
and justification by faith in his name, must be not 
obscurely recognized in their preaching, nor re- 
motely inferred from it, but plainly and prominently 
set forth. Their inseparable connection with the 
honour of God, with the satisfaction of law, and with 
the peace of the believer, must be made to appear. 

The church of the living God is the woman of 
the Apocalypse — the woman clothed with the sun. 
Rev. xii. 1. The servant of Christ, therefore, should 
take his stand in the very centre of the Gospel 
system — the focal point of its peculiar glory. The 
light of the knowledge of the glory of God, as it 
shines in the face of Jesus Christ, should be seen to 
shine in him with a lustre limited indeed by the 
finite capacities of man, but pure as when it sprang 
from the bosom of the infinite God. The law of the 
Lord should dwell upon his lips ; the gentleness of 
heaven in his heart and on his brow. He should 
build his argument on the immovable basis of the 
love of God, revealed in redemption. He should 
draw his exhortations to obedience from the example 
of Jesus, and his incitements to devotion, from the 
solitude of the mountain and the fervours of his 
midnight prayer. 

No inferior motive — no meaner topic should be 
permitted to usurp the place of these. May he not 
without presumption hope to convince, to warn, to 
counsel and to comfort, whose arguments rest on 
God ; whose warnings are drawn from the inter- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 17 

minable agonies of hell ; whose counsels are dic- 
tated by the inspiration of the Almighty ; and whose 
comfort is supplied by the Holy Ghost ? The 
glorious shekinah of God, the appointed symbol of 
the divine Majesty, rested on the mercy-seat ; thus 
foreshadowing mercy and truth met together, 
righteousness and peace embracing each other. 
Above shone the holiness of God in all its inacces- 
sible and intolerable brightness ; and underneath 
was placed the ample basis of peace and pardon. 
Thus does the Lord our righteousness fulfil the law 
and propitiate the "holiness of God," at the very 
moment that he gives the largest scope to mercy 
and grace. The work of redemption by Christ 
Jesus is a work every way worthy of God. It is 
a work which it required the love of God to originate ; 
John iii. 16 ; the wisdom of God to devise ; the 
power of God to execute ; and the grace of God to 
apply. The recognition of Christ is, therefore, an 
infallible test of the true relation of the soul to God 
and to the gospel salvation. The due apprehension 
of spiritual things is just in proportion as they are 
spiritual ; the most purely and highly spiritual de- 
manding the clearest and nicest perception, and 
appealing to the deepest and most delicate sympa- 
thies. Therefore the Lord Jesus being in his 
person the fountain of spiritual life ; in his doctrine 
the sum of spiritual truth ; and in his character the 
standard of spiritual beauty ; the right apprehension 
of Christ may be regarded as the measure of our 
2* 



18 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

illumination and the test of our moral excellence. 
Hence the question, "What think ye of Christ?" 
is reckoned, in the Scripture, so decisive of our stand- 
ing in the sight of God and of our destiny for ever. 
The faculty of discovering Christ everywhere in the 
Scriptures in the types and shadows and ceremonies 
of the law, of which we have such signal instances 
in Matthew Henry and in Andrew Bonar, and per- 
haps more remarkably than in either, in the saintly 
McCheyne — is a token of discriminating wisdom 
and of delicate spiritual tact. Christ is with us in his 
providence, when we think not of him. Like the 
disciples when they saw him walking on the sea, we 
vaguely discover the outlines of his beloved form, 
but require the gracious assurance of his compas- 
sionate voice, " It is I ; be not afraid." Mark vi. 
50. So he is with us in the word of his grace, but 
we perceive him not because our eyes, like those of 
the disciples, "are holden." The inward unction 
of the Holy Ghost is essential to a correct appre- 
hension of revealed truth ; to a saving knowledge 
of the incarnate God. For the truth may be 
clearly discerned by the natural understanding and 
yet make no impression on the heart ; or excite 
only opposition and disgust. Mixed with faith and 
impressed by the Holy Spirit, it is not only under- 
stood but acquiesced in, and not only acquiesced in 
but rejoiced in ; it is then not better known than 
loved ; the strong affections of the soul keeping pace 
with the clear apprehensions of the mind. John i. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 19 

12; 2 Cor. iv. 13; 1 John iii. 24; John xvi. 13. 
Hence it is that the saving knowledge of God and 
of his Christ can never be got by definition or 
description. It can be attained only by experience ; 
the Holy Ghost himself being the teacher. 

As a man with weak or impaired vision can see 
comparatively little ; though all the wonders of earth 
and sky — of land and sea — be spread out before 
him; and one with strong and clear vision, can 
take in a wide and varied prospect of "meadow, 
grove, and stream ;" so it is with the eye of the 
mind. The material world does not exhibit the 
same aspects, suggest the same truths, or convey 
the same lessons to all men indifferently. How 
much more is suggested to an Aristotle and Bacon; 
to a Newton, a Franklin, a Humboldt, by the sen- 
sible phenomena before us, than to men in general, 
who pass through the world with their eyes shut 
or dreaming — rational somnambulists ? To the eye 
of an angel, still more to the eye of the omniscient 
Creator, there is infinitely more in the universe 
than the most gifted of the sons of men have been 
able to see or to divine. So it is in relation to the 
hidden riches of the word of God. The Bible is 
not the same book to every reader ; just as the visi- 
ble universe is not the same object to every observer. 
To perfect knowledge and to perfect enjoyment, it 
is not less essential that the organ of discernment 
be clear and sound, than that the object of atten- 
tion be instructive and beautiful. With many now 



20 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

as with the Jews of old, 2 Cor. iii. 14, there is a 
veil on the mind in the reading of the Scriptures ; 
which renders it impossible for them to discern their 
most delicate beauties — or to appreciate their most 
precious lessons. This veil it is the province of the 
Holy Spirit to take away ; and exhibit the word of 
God in its unsearchable riches of truth and wisdom, 
of grace and glory. 

The Bible comes to us originally from God ; 
mediately by man. There are accordingly two 
ways of looking at it. The one is to confine our 
regards to the human instruments, through whose 
agency it was given to us. This is the method of 
the rationalist. The other is to contemplate it as 
essentially a revelation from God and of God ; in- 
spired by his Spirit, and instinct with his presence. 
This is the method of the enlightened believer. We 
may therefore read it grammatically, critically, 
coldly, intellectually ; weighing carefully every sen- 
tence and word and syllable and punctuation-point, 
just as we should read any mere human production. 
Or we may take it up with the vital interest, with 
the sacred awe, with the implicit faith, with the 
humble docility, and with the fervent prayer for the 
promised teaching of the Holy Ghost, which befit 
the word of the only wise God, our Father, in the 
hands of his lowly children. The way to read it to 
good purpose, is to make every passage our own, 
by a diligent self-application, whether it be a com- 
mand, a prohibition, a precept, a promise, or a 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 21 

prayer. So studied, its glorious divinity shines out, 
as sun-light from the parted cloud ; its ineffable 
sweetness streams out, as the juice from the full 
and fragrant clusters of the grape ; its sovereign 
majesty is felt, its heavenly grace is tasted, its 
matchless and mysterious power to subdue, to sanc- 
tify, and to cheer the soul, is infallibly evinced. 
The soul of the believer instinctively moves toward 
God ; strives after communion with him in his word 
and ordinances, as the flower struggles toward the 
light. He now feels that one hour's fellowship with 
the Father, through the gracious mediation of his 
dear Son, is worth a whole lifetime of sensual bliss; 
and he anticipates with irrepressible ardour and de- 
light, the spiritual joys of heaven. 

The more the Christian reads the Scriptures, and 
ponders the Scriptures, and prays over the Scriptures, 
the better will he understand, the more will he re- 
vere and love them. Approaching the recorded 
revelations of God, in this frame of mind, they have 
for us an indescribable elevation and a peculiar 
charm. Studied in the spirit in which they were 
given under His power who indited them — read in 
the pure light of heaven under which they were 
written ; their superhuman glory will be intuitively, 
unmistakably, and profoundly apprehended. Thus 
contemplated, the vast and simple grandeur of Bible 
revelations, on a general and comprehensive survey, 
cannot but strike the mind. There is a majestic 
harmony in all the proportions of Christian truth ; 



22 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

in all the propositions of the Christian theology. As 
St. Peter's at Rome is said to impress the eye of 
the beholder with its finished symmetry and pro- 
portioned beauty ; as the glorious dome of the fir- 
mament gives a still higher impression of unity and 
greatness, so likewise the Bible. There is not a 
logical merely, but a theological and transcendental 
relation among the several parts of this spiritual 
temple of God ; — a relation among its several doc- 
trines higher than any formal logic of man's disco- 
very or device ; deeper than any analogies or pro- 
cesses of nature ; of vast but still measured corres- 
pondence between the various but never conflicting 
truths of divine revelation ; the absolute sovereignty 
of God and the free agency of man ; the doctrine 
of divine election and the doctrine of human respon- 
sibility. These several truths elude our grasp and 
rise above our comprehension, by reason not of their 
obscurity but of their sublimity. The method of 
conciliation is unknown to us, not from any want 
of congruity in them, but from the limited range of 
our reason. The darkness is all our own, in God is 
light and in him is no darkness at all. When 
we come into the world of Scripture we come into a 
world of wonders. There is the immensity, the vari- 
ety, the magnificence of nature. Every thing is on a 
stupendous scale ; the holiness and love, the wrath 
and the mercy of God. Those doctrines of divine reve- 
lation which are most offensive to the pride of human 
reason, and to the corruption of the human heart, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 23 

rest upon precisely the same testimony, with those 
which are most gladly received ; as, for instance, 
the eternal punishment of the wicked in a future 
state of existence, and the everlasting blessedness 
of the righteous. Matt. xxv. 46. All the truths 
of divine revelation relating directly to God and to 
the destiny of the human soul, have an immeasura- 
ble significance and grandeur. When we think 
therefore, of the catastrophe impending over the 
impenitent sinner, let us not lose sight of the as- 
sociated truths — the inconceivable height of heavenly 
glory to which the believer is advanced ; the ample 
provision made for our salvation in the redemption by 
Christ Jesus ; the transcendent wisdom and excel- 
lence of the law violated ; the infinite elevation of 
the Being affronted ; the unutterable majesty and 
merit of the Son of God who died for our sins ac- 
cording to the Scriptures. 

In its lowest function, as a means of intellectual 
culture, as a gymnastic of the mind, indispensable 
to its fullest and finest development, the Bible is 
worthy of all study and of all praise. Some classes 
of books are positively pernicious to some classes 
of minds ; as poetry and fiction to excessively ar- 
dent and imaginative persons ; extreme addiction 
to mathematical studies to those whose mental ten- 
dencies are just the reverse — men of dry and sapless 
minds ;* but prescribed by Lord Bacon as a medicine 

* Sir Wiliam Hamilton's Discussions. English edition, 
p. 258, &c. 



24 THE TllUE PATH, OR THE 

for such as may be afflicted with " a wandering 
wit," or, as he elsewhere expresses it, are "bird- 
witted." The Bible, however, is a perennial foun- 
tain of health, and healing whatever may be the 
morbific tendencies of the mind. There can be no 
perfect system of education even for the mind, from 
which the Bible is excluded. This might be demon- 
strated, not only from the greatness of the ideas it 
etolves and discloses; from the purity, variety, 
vigour, and sublimity, of its style ; but from the 
moral elevation of its distinctive and reigning spirit. 
There must be a proper adjustment — an interior 
harmony between the intellectual and moral forces, 
to develope the highest vigour of either; and a 
right state of the affections is indispensable, if not 
to perfect sanity of mind, to its utmost strength and 
keenest sagacity. The Rabbins say that the manna 
which fell in the wilderness, was divinely adapted 
to every man's taste. So the word of God — the 
bread of heaven, is divinely adapted to every man's 
intellectual habit. See what innumerable specula- 
tions in moral truth, of the utmost variety, beauty, 
sublimity, and value, filling numberless folios, in 
many tongues, have all been legitimately drawn 
from the sacred Scriptures ; pure, fertilizing, life- 
giving streams, branching out from these inexhaus- 
tible fountains ; as the river, which went out from 
Eden, was divided into four heads. Gen. ii. 10. 

To see a man, who is not professionally bound to 
Study the Scriptures, familiar with the several parts of 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 25 

the Bible ; not only its doctrines and precepts, but its 
histories and prophecies, and the exact circumstances 
of their accomplishment — is a rare thing. For this 
there is no excuse whatever, in an educated Protestant 
community, where the people at large are not for- 
bidden to study the Scriptures. There are many 
books — and even popular books, which we should 
blush to have read. But there is one book, which 
every man who can read should blush not to know 
familiarly, and in every part of its diversified reve- 
lations. That book is the Bible. The deep and 
diligent study of every portion of God's word — for 
it is all more precious than the gold of Ophir, and 
even the very dust of the stones of this temple of 
God glitters with heavenly radiance — would be fol- 
lowed by a visible and vast improvement, not only 
in purely spiritual knowledge, but of the natural 
powers. Every other study is comparatively con- 
tracted in its tendency and scope. This alone can 
impart to the various faculties, a complete and 
catholic education. Those who imbibe secular 
knowledge only, are like those who fed from the 
tables of the king of Babylon. There is nothing 
sacred in their aliment, and nothing striking in their 
aspect. But those who feed upon what some may 
choose to regard as the pulse and water of the word 
of God — will be found in the end, like the three 
children, " fairer and fatter in flesh than all the chil- 
dren which did eat the portion of the king's meat." 
Daniel L 8 — 16. 
3 



26 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

We speak habitually of the moral and intellectual 
faculties ; and the distinction is not only common 
but convenient. Still we should never lose sight of 
the fact that the soul is an indivisible unit, and that 
these various exercises are but different manifesta- 
tions of the one indwelling spirit. It has often been 
remarked, that the Bible does not recognize that 
wide distinction between them, which obtains in our 
prevailing systems of philosophy, and in common 
parlance. Hence we frequently read of the thoughts 
of the heart and the desires of the mind ; men are 
said to understand with the heart, and the heart is 
said to be enlightened with knowledge. On the 
other hand, they are spoken of as serving the Lord 
with all humility of mind, and receiving the word 
with all readiness of mind. Matt. xiii. 15 ; Rom. 
x. 10 ; 2 Cor. iv. 6 ; Acts xvii. 11 ; xx. 19. See 
Hodge on Romans, i. 21. So intimate indeed is the 
connection between the apprehensions of the mind, 
and the corresponding moral emotions — especially 
in regard to the most sublime and sacred truths — 
that it is often exceedingly difficult to draw the line 
between them. There is a wisdom, which may be 
called the wisdom of the heart. A tender heart 
and benevolent temper will sometimes not only sur- 
pass the wisdom of years, but anticipate the disco- 
veries of ages. Thus, at the early age of fourteen, 
Edward the Sixth acknowledged principles of tol- 
eration, which Archbishop Cranmer, the counsellor 
of kings, could not understand, and which are far 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 27 

from being universally embraced, even at the pre- 
sent day. How did this English Josiah come to 
understand more than all his teachers? Simply, 
because his soul tutored his understanding, and this 
serene and comprehensive wisdom was the appro- 
priate result. 

The preceptive portions of the word of God re- 
quiring us to fulfil all righteousness, forbidding 
every transgression, and disobedience, are an argu- 
ment of the goodness, scarcely less than of the 
holiness of God. Is it not a plain proof of goodness, 
that all his commands should be of such a nature, 
that obedience exalts us to glory, honour, and 
virtue ; that he should enjoin nothing which it is 
not for our well-being to do ; that he should forbid 
nothing which it is not for our well-being to forbear 
or to forego ? And what is remarkable is that 
obedience should exalt us just in proportion as it is 
perfect and willing ; and what is still more remark- 
able is that there should be nothing painful in it, 
provided it be voluntary, nothing servile or degrad- 
ing in obedience, provided it be rendered to just 
authority. We can indeed conceive of no higher 
freedom than to have the soul subject to conscience, 
and conscience subject to God. 

Serene will be our days and bright, 
And happy will our nature be, 
When love is an unerring light, 
And joy its own security. 

God himself — who is in the highest sense free and 



28 THE TRUE PATH, OK THE 



the fountain of freedom to all his creatures — is yet 
obedient to the law of his own most excellent nature, 
in the exercise of that very freedom and in virtue 
of that very excellence. 1 Tim. ii. 13. 

Examine the Bible, in any light and from any 
point of view, and it is infinitely remarkable as 
containing the earliest and only authentic history 
of our race ; in the peerless majesty of its utterances 
concerning God ; in its incomparable power over the 
human heart and conscience ; in its unapproachable 
influence on the character of nations and races, and 
on the whole course of this world's history. Is it 
not remarkable that the Scriptures, written many of 
them in the infancy of our race, should not have 
been superseded by something later and better ; 
that all the wit of man cannot go beyond them, as 
a scheme of salvation, or even as a book of moral 
duty and practical wisdom ? Is it not still more re- 
markable that such a book should have emanated 
from such a people, from the Jew T s ; and that noth- 
ing to compare with it should be found among the 
Greeks, or elsewhere ; and that nothing to compare 
with it should be found among the uninspired books 
of the Jews themselves ; that it should stand alone 
and aloft, in the firmament of letters, like the star 
which the wise men saw over the place where the 
Christ should be born ? This is one of the many 
circumstances, which mark the Scriptures of the 
Old Testament, not less than the New, as unique 
and unparalleled in the intellectual history of man- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 29 

kind. It is only one of the manifold difficulties of 
infidelity — a thousand fold more insuperable than 
any of the difficulties of Scripture ; and it is one 
which infidels never will be able to remove with all 
their art and industry, so long as history, sacred 
and profane, shall survive. It is only one of the 
many infallible proofs of the divine origin and au- 
thority of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. 
Is it not indeed a singular phenomenon ? and is there 
not a wonderful assemblage of singular phenomena 
about the Christian system, both in its substance 
and history, as there was about the life and death 
of Christ himself, in whom the whole system centres, 
around whom it all revolves ? 

The Bible is demonstrably different from what it 
would have been; is, in many parts of its structure, 
in many of its doctrines, in much of its spirit, 
entirely the opposite of what it must have been, if 
it had been concocted by shrewd and sagacious 
men. Many of its details touching Jewish history 
and other things seem to us needless, especially 
when repeated with no remarkable or essential 
variation ; w^hile its notices on many other occa- 
sions, and on many other topics, which seem to us 
much more important and attractive, are extremely 
scanty, if any at all. What better evidence could 
we have that " the prophecy came not in old time by 
the will of man, but that holy men of God spake as 
they were moved by the Holy Ghost ;" since we find 
just such difficulties in nature and providence ; and 



30 

God himself has told us that his thoughts are not 
as our thoughts, nor his ways as our ways ? 2 Pet. 
i. 21. Isa. lv. 8. When with this consideration 
we connect the remote and apparently antagonistic 
fact of the complete correspondence and harmony 
running through the Bible histories, such as no 
human foresight or forethought could have con- 
trived ; the miracle of the gift of tongues, for ex- 
ample, prefiguring the ingrafting of the Gentiles, as 
the miraculous confusion of tongues had prefigured 
their excision, the proof of the superhuman character 
of these records becomes altogether irresistible. 
Acts ii. 1-13. Gen xi. 1-9. 

It is not uncommon for modern infidels to speak 
of the Christian religion as obsolete ; not coinci- 
dent with their scientific conclusions, and not equal to 
their schemes of philanthropy. As an illustration, 
we may refer to one of the latest and most arrogant 
forms of atheistic unbelief, that known as the Posi- 
tive Philosophy of Auguste Comte, which affirms 
that mankind in their normal development pass 
through three successive stages, 1st. the Theological; 
2d. the Metaphysical ; 3d. the Scientific. When 
therefore they become Scientific, they must of ne- 
cessity cease to be Christian. To all this we may 
reply :_ 

In the first place, that the Bible does not purport 
to be a revelation of scientific, but of spiritual truth; 
that the glorious gospel of the blessed God is the 
gospel of our salvation ; that science belongs pro- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 31 

perly to the domain of reason ; that a religious 
revelation is addressed primarily to the moral sense, 
and has to do with moral truth and with moral 
duty. 

In the second place, that it is not a little remark- 
able that no scientific error ever should have been 
positively fastened upon it, alluding as it does to 
every department of nature animate and inanimate; 
rehearsing the creation of the world ; repeatedly 
recounting the wonders of the universe ; and touch- 
ing, in prophecy or history, or both, on every 
important dynasty and nation which has ever 
existed. 

In the third place, that those who have expended 
all their eloquence, learning, and wit, in the endea- 
vour to discredit and destroy it, as Volney and 
Gibbon, have done it involuntary service ; rendered 
unconscious tribute to its truth, and accumulated 
unwilling testimony to its divinity ; that Christi- 
anity is true, and therefore immortal ; that it has 
been assailed in turn by Judaism and Paganism ; 
by Herod and by Julian ; by secret stratagem and 
by open force ; from within and from without ; by 
persecution, heresy, and schism ; by the treachery 
of false brethren and by the violence of professed 
enemies ; and that it yet survives, not in decrepi- 
tude and decline, but in unwasting vigour and invin- 
cible might ; that let a man of science, like Kepler, 
or Laplace, or Lavoisier, simply pursue his scien- 
tific investigations, question nature in Bacon's 



32 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

noble phrase, without once thinking of the Bible, and 
it will be amazing to remark the strict correspondence 
between his most mature conclusions and the Bible 
testimonies in regard to the same subjects. The 
recent testimony of our distinguished countryman, 
Lieutenant Maury, on this point, is of the highest 
value ; coinciding, as it does with the recorded sen- 
timents of Sir Humphrey Davy, Sir Isaac Newton, 
and Lord Bacon ; not one of whom was the less 
religious because scientific. Bacon's works gene- 
rally, in all of which not a sentence or senti- 
ment will be found in disparagement of the Christian 
religion, and especially his essay on Atheism, should 
be deeply pondered by every educated young man, 
who may be in danger from the significant silence 
of Humboldt, or the recorded blasphemies of Comte. 
" The Sciences," says Cousin, " so far from turn- 
ing us away from religion, conduct us to it. Physics 
with their laws, mathematics with their sublime 
ideas, especially philosophy which cannot take a 
single step without encountering universal and 
necessary principles, are so many stages on the way 
to Deity, and thus to speak, so many temples, in 
which homage is perpetually paid to Him."* 

In the fourth place, that in experience, the Bible 
is found to carry with it all other blessings, whether 
to an individual or to a community ; for this world, 
as well as the world to come ; that while it pri- 
marily contemplates the soul and the spiritual inter- 

* Lectures on the True, Beautiful, and Good, p. 99. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 33 

ests of men ; the forgiveness of sin ; peace of con- 
science ; hope toward God ; support in trouble, in 
sickness, and in death; together with an inheritance 
beyond the grave, incorruptible, undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away ; it incidentally, but invariably and 
inevitably, carries other blessings in its train. To 
an individual, it not only brings peace of conscience 
— a never-failing spring of the sweetest enjoyment — 
but ordinarily the public respect and confidence ; 
and that too, just in proportion, as the real nature 
of this religion is understood, and to the purity and 
fulness, with which the individual is believed to have 
embraced it. To a community, it brings all public 
and social blessings. In the exact proportion in 
w T hich it prevails, industry, honesty, thrift, chastity, 
temperance, mutual good-will, intellectual improve- 
ment, equal laws, social elevation, civil and religious 
liberty prevail. 1 Tim. iv. 10. Its influence in 
improving the condition of society ; preserving peace 
among the nations ; softening national prejudices ; 
affirming the unity of the race, and teaching the 
brotherhood of the nations ; giving rise to whole- 
some laws, and disposing men to desire and observe 
them ; promoting benevolent institutions, for the 
relief of the wretched and the helpless — alms- 
houses, hospitals, asylums for the blind, the deaf, 
the dumb, and the insane ; the consecration of 
philosophical discoveries and scientific inventions to 
merciful uses ; all these are to be taken into the 
account. Mankind have been much more happy 



34 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

since the advent of our Saviour, and Christian na- 
tions have been incomparably more happy and 
more elevated in mind and morals, than other na- 
tions. Unfaithful, as many nominal Christians are, 
real Christians are still, as they have ever been, as 
they must ever be, the salt of the earth and the 
light of the world. For the soul of the true believer 
is a divine palimpsest, from which the base charac- 
ters of sin have been at least partially erased, to 
make room for the beautiful inscriptions of holiness. 
In the fifth place, the fundamental lessons of 
Nature, as well as of Scripture, presuppose and 
demand no acquaintance whatever with the abstruser 
parts of science. Nature and Scripture were both 
designed for the instruction and delight, not of a 
select circle, but of all mankind ; and the wisdom 
of the common Author of both is conspicuous in this 
common characteristic. The peasant, not less than 
the philosopher, can admire the wisdom of God in 
the grand though familiar forms and arrangements 
of nature ; in the wonderful instinct of bees and 
birds and beasts. In early days, not less than now, 
in primitive and simple, not less than in later and 
scientific times, the undimmed glories of majestic 
nature, of night, of the ocean, and of the mountain, 
the sounding cataract and the sunny slope, spoke 
in audible accents and intelligible voice, to the heart 
of man. David, Isaiah, and Homer felt as deeply the 
magnificence and the beauty of these objects as 
Milton, Chalmers or Brewster. So the prime and 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 35 

obvious revelations of the word of God ; the great 
truths of Catholic Christianity, which stand out 
from the general level of inspired Scripture, as the 
stars and the mountains from the landscape of na- 
ture; in their simple grandeur, may strike the 
mind of the pious cottager, with as deep a sense of 
awe and as delicious a sense of beauty, as that with 
which they fill the admiring soul of the learned 
philosopher or Rabbi. The just, the final and the 
only conclusion is, that there is no real conflict be- 
tween Scripture and Science — the word and the 
works of God — and that any apparent discrepancy 
arises from our misconception of the true teachings 
of one or of both. 



36 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 



LECTURE II. 

DIVINE REVELATION SPECIALLY SUITED TO THE 
NATURE AND NEEDS OF THE SOUL. 

From this general and distant view of the subject, 
let us pass on to the consideration of particular 
truths. This is indeed like fixing the eye dis- 
tinctly, for a while, on "one bright particular star," 
after it has been wearied by gazing on the general 
glories of the midnight sky. 

By way of simple and easy illustration, let us 
take the first doctrine of all religion, natural and 
revealed — the being of a God — more precisely the 
Bible idea of God, in all his infinite perfections as 
revealed to Moses : — 

" The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, 
long-suffering and slow to anger, abundant in good- 
ness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, for- 
giving iniquity and transgression and sin and that 
will by no means clear the guilty.' ' Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7. 

Now just conceive of a man cut off from all know- 
ledge or hearing of God altogether ; into whose 
mind the sublime conception of God had never 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 37 

entered, suddenly having a full revelation of this 
all-glorious Being and of all his adorable perfections. 
It would be like the wide shining of the mid-day 
sun, rising on the noon of night ; at once bursting 
forth in his meridian splendour from the deep bosom 
of all-surrounding darkness. 

In the second book of his very remarkable treatise 
" Concerning the Nature of the Gods," Cicero has 
preserved to us a singularly interesting extract from 
a lost work of Aristotle. " If there were beings, 
who had always lived underground, in convenient, 
nay magnificent dwellings, adorned with statues 
and pictures, and every thing that belongs to pros- 
perous life, but who had never come above ground ; 
who had heard however, by fame and report, of the 
being and power of the gods ; if at a certain time 
the portals of the earth being thrown open, they 
had been able to emerge from those hidden abodes 
to the regions inhabited by us ; when suddenly they 
had seen the earth, the seas, and the sky ; had per- 
ceived the vastness of the clouds and the force of 
the winds ; had contemplated the sun, his magnitude 
and beauty, and still more his effectual power, that 
it is he who makes the day by the diffusion of his 
light through the whole sky ; and when night had 
darkened the earth, should then behold the whole 
heavens, studded and adorned with stars, and the 
various lights of the waxing and waning moon, the 
rising and the setting of all these heavenly bodies ; 
and their courses fixed and immutable in all eternity : 
4 



38 

when, I say, they should see these things, truly they 
would believe that there are gods, and that these so 
great things are their works.* Not only does it 
illuminate and exalt, but it mightily fortifies and 
draws the mind to conceive of God, not a mere 
presence like the air, not a mere general name for 
the unknown forces of nature; but a perfect and 
personal being, in conscious existence before the 
mountains were brought forth, and destined to exist 
after the dissolution of the universe ; full of majesty 
and grace, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, 
doing wonders, and yet not far from any one of us ; 
in whom we live and move and have our being, our 
Father in Heaven ! 

This grand conception, this fundamental truth, 
this primary fact is not formally propounded in 
divine revelation, but everywhere assumed and 
proceeded upon. Gen. i. 1. And so the wonders 
rise as we ascend, step by step, the mystic ladder 
of inspired Scripture, Gen. xxviii. 12, one end rest- 
ing on the earth, the other reaching to the skies ; 
as we scrutinize the several doctrines of this match- 
less volume in their isolated grandeur or in their 
combined and reflected glory. One God the Father 
of all, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable ; the Father 
of lights ; the Father of mercies ; the God of glory ; 

* The translation is by our American Cicero, Edward 
Everett. Appropriate reference is made to this passage 
of Aristotle in a beautiful essay of Addison. Spectator. 
No. 465. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 39 

One Lord Jesus Christ ; the Only Begotten of the 
Father ; full of grace and truth ; his co-equal and 
co-eternal Son ; in the ineffable majesty of his per- 
son ; in the unspotted beauty of his life ; in the 
greatness, the multitude, and gracious character of 
his miracles ; in the divine Majesty, the unfathomable 
depth, and the inexhaustible power of his spoken 
words ; words which are this day spirit and life, to 
us as truly and as largely as to them that heard 
him ; in his life of holy obedience and in his death 
of gracious expiation, equally marvellous and alike 
unparalleled. One blessed and eternal Spirit, pro- 
ceeding from the Father and the Son ; who, with 
life-giving energy, moved upon the face of the waters ; 
who garnished the heavens and formed the crooked 
serpent ; the Source of all created light and life and 
love ; in the unsearchable wisdom and greatness of 
his operations ; in his power to make alive the 
soul dead in trespasses and sins, to subdue its ini- 
quities, to expel its corruptions, and to create it 
anew in the glorious image of God. This one God, 
in three persons, the same in substance, equal in 
power and glory, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, 
revealed as the proper and only object of religious 
worship; as the proper and all-sufficient portion of 
the creature, his heritage and joy for ever ; the in- 
carnation, the atonement, and the intercession of 
the Lord Jesus Christ; his power and glory as 
Mediator ; the gracious office of the Holy Ghost, as 



40 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

Sanctifier, Comforter, and Guide, his cleansing effi- 
cacy, his vital ray, his healing unction. 

Not less wonderful is this revelation in what it dis- 
closes concerning the origin, history, and destiny of 
man, than in what it makes known in regard to the be- 
ing, the nature, the will, and the works of God ; in the 
doctrine which it delivers, of an immortal, undivided, 
complete existence of man in body and soul after 
death; in a body raised and renovated, but still 
ours and recognized as ours ; in a soul not as now 
contracted and impure, but expanded and immacu- 
late, still ours, and rejoiced in as truly and con- 
sciously our own ; in its recognition of our poor 
fallen human nature, just as it is in all its degrada- 
tion, helplessness, and woe; in its taking up the 
puzzling problem of man's estate of sin and misery, 
and furnishing a satisfying solution and the only 
solution of it ; in its revelation of a remedy for all 
our diseases and a balm for all our wounds ! 

The wonders which God exhibits to our contem- 
plation in the world of nature, would seem more 
amazing, were our perceptive faculties enlarged and 
sharpened. In certain cases, the chief inconvenien- 
ces, arising from the imperfection of our bodily 
organs, have been at least partially remedied by 
mechanical instruments. 

The microscope and the telescope have in turn 
revealed to us treasures of heavenly wisdom, invisi- 
ble to the naked eye; of a wisdom which is alike 
able to crowd with wonders a single drop of water, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 41 

and the boundless expanse of the starry skies. So 
in regard to the infinite realities, revealed to our 
faith in the Scriptures. They can never be compre- 
hended. They can never be numbered. They can 
never be measured. But they are not therefore to 
be overlooked ; only to be all the more diligently 
pondered, and all the more highly prized. 

It may be that the more thoughtful of us, in early 
youth, dreaded lest increase of years and of wis- 
dom should dispel the majesty, which invested the 
objects of revelation to our immature minds. This 
feeling is not only natural to a thoughtful mind, 
imbued with the gentle sympathies, and the tender 
sentiments of natural piety, awake to the magnifi- 
cence of the outer world, of sky, and plain, and 
river, bathed in the splendours of the rising or the 
setting sun ; and alive to the still purer glories, the 
more tender light, the more perfect loveliness that 
beams upon us, from the face of heavenly truth — 
inspired Scripture — but true in regard to every 
other religion known to history except that revealed 
in the Bible. No other can be consistently maintained, 
or adhered to in consistency with the progress of 
scientific intelligence. We know that the religious 
systems of India at the present day are so vitally bound 
together with demonstrable errors in various depart- 
ments of natural science, that the only alternative 
with an educated native is infidelity or Christianity. 
Nor is this by any means a new or a rare pheno- 
menon. Neander tells us that "the popular reli- 
4 * 



42 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

gions of antiquity answered only for a certain stage 
of culture. When the nations in the course of their 
progress had passed beyond this, the necessary con- 
sequence was a dissevering of the spirit from the 
religious traditions. In the case of the more quiet 
and equable development of the Oriental mind, so 
tenacious of the old, the opposition between the 
mythic religion of the people, and the secret theoso- 
phic doctrines of a priestly caste who gave direction 
to the popular conscience, might exist for centuries 
without change. But among the more excitable 
nations of the West, intellectual culture, so soon as 
it attained to a certain degree of independence, must 
fall into collision with the mythic religion handed 
down from the infancy of the people. 

In our callow youth we have perhaps wondered 
how the revelations of Scripture, so glorious and so 
dear to us, appeared to grown men, and feared lest 

" Years that bring the philosophic mind," 

might enable us to overmaster them, to see through 
them, to rise above them ; and there has been some- 
thing of surprise mingled with our delight to find that 
the only effect of the exercise of our improved facul- 
ties on these sublime subjects, has been kindred to 
the revelations of the microscope and the telescope in 
regard to the miracles of nature. Together with 
the enlargement of our spiritual vision, has there 
been a corresponding increase in the apparent 
magnitude of spiritual objects. The oldest and the 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 43 

most intelligent Christian, Sir Isaac Newton or 
Chalmers or Edwards, is as far from a complete 
mastery of the grand truths which relate to the 
being, the perfections, and the works of God, in the 
two distinct departments of nature and grace, as a 
little child. 

In their infinite elevation, in their unfathomable 
significance, in their manifold relations, and in their 
abiding results, the truths of divine revelation 
transcend not only the human understanding but 
the ken of an angel. 1 Pet. i. 12 ; Eph. iii. 10, 19 ; 
Rev. iv. 8-11. As our impressions of the pomp and 
prodigality of nature, everywhere teeming with life 
and with prolific powers, are heightened by the revela- 
tions of the microscope and by the illuminated page 
of the firmament, written over within and without 
in the glorious handwriting of God ; so the more 
improved our spiritual faculties, the more extended 
our spiritual knowledge, the more august will be our 
conceptions, the more exalted our impressions of 
revealed truth. The stronger and the more exer- 
cised our spiritual faculties, the more marvellous 
and splendid our spiritual discoveries. But the last 
and highest discovery of all, will be that this is verily 
a love that passeth knowledge, that ours is verily a 
God that hideth himself though it be in a pavilion of 
light, that we cannot find out the Almighty to perfec- 
tion, and we shall finally exclaim with Paul, when we 
have reached the highest point in our future ad- 
vancement, " Oh ! the depth of the riches both of 



44 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable 
are his judgments and his ways past finding out I" 
Rom. xi. 33. 

The conscious wretchedness of man in his fallen 
state is a truth attested by all the feelings of the 
heart, expressed under all the forms of speech, 
acknowledged by every system of philosophy, as- 
sumed in every scheme of religion ; lamented in the 
poetry, recorded in the history of every nation ; the 
universal sentiment because the universal experience 
of the race. The noblest work of God even in his 
ruin, man still bears the mark of his primitive and 
princely glory. His physical organization, his 
intellectual faculties, his social affections, his moral 
powers, his indestructible sense of religion, found 
wherever he is found, evinced amidst ignorance and 
vice, blindness, and barbarism, prompt him always and 
everywhere to seek after God. Bound to the earth 
by fetters of corruption, but still lifting an eye of 
devotion and hope to heaven, the victim of sin and 
the born thrall of Satan, he still in conscience re- 
cognizes the just authority of God. And though 
the currents of this his nature are now all turned 
awry, its sweet harmonies disturbed and jarred, its 
integrity lost, its powers enfeebled, its heavenly peace 
fled, its once unspotted purity defiled, yet does the 
soul of man, by its conscious craving and continual 
cry, show that he was meant to be the minister, that 
it was meant to be the temple of God. The mind 
of man has many mansions, imagination, taste, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 45 

sentiment, a capacity of perceiving and enjoying 
various species of truths poetical, mathematical, 
moral, and divine. This we feel when we gaze on 
fcfc the universal book of knowledge fair," the face 
of nature, the bright sky, and the fruitful earth. 
But these mansions of the mind are either tenantless 
of the noblest truths which should dwell in them, or 
they are occupied by hideous monsters, depraved 
affections, and loathsome errors. 

The affinity of the soul for universal truth, en- 
vironed as it is by mysteries in every object and by 
ignorance in every science, and most of all in theo- 
logy, the vast disproportion between its present 
powers and desires, its aspirations and attainments, 
are an unfailing source of inward fretting and dis- 
quiet, of resentful humiliation not of sweet humility, 
of secret corroding bitterness, of an ulcerous and 
ungovernable discontent. There is now a schism 
in the soul itself which man can neither disguise nor 
heal, deep discord among its faculties and forces ; 
a dissatisfaction which he would allay, a disorder 
which he would remove but cannot ! 

Now there is a striking congruity between the 
human soul, with its vast capacities of knowledge 
and enjoyment; with its incessant yearnings after 
what is great, what is true, and what is good, and 
the Christian religion, in its revelation of infinite 
greatness, of absolute truth, and of the supreme 
good — an admirable correspondence, as of the echo 
to the sound ; a visible adaptation, as of the respira- 



46 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

tory organs to the vital air ; as of the form of the 
key to the wards of the lock ; as the soil to the seed ; 
the ear to music, the eye to beauty, and the 
heart to love. The revelation of God, with all its 
truths and sanctions, consolations and gifts, is ad- 
dressed to the soul of man. The soul of man, with 
all its instincts, capacities, desires, and needs, re- 
sponds to the revelation of God. 

It requires no elaborate analysis of the faculties 
of the soul to evince this spiritual correspondence — 
no partial appeal to select circles — to limited classes 
— to individuals highly cultivated and rarely en- 
dowed. All that we have to do, is simply to go 
forth and make known the gospel call to the reli- 
gious consciousness of mankind at large ; to address 
the common reason — the general conscience bur- 
dened, polluted, enthralled, trembling ; to speak to 
the throbbing heart of the mixed multitude ; to 
knock at the door of ordinary, lowly, human affec- 
tion. Then present the grand scheme brought to 
light in the Gospel — Christ the power of God and 
the wisdom of God to every one that believeth. 
Only sound out the superhuman revelations of THE 
BOOK — that system of Scriptural doctrine of which 
Christ and he crucified is the Alpha and Omega. 
Only go to man, high or low, savage or civilized, 
let the powers, the passions, and the aspirations of 
this, our common human nature, be deeply stirred ; let 
them heave like the billowy sea — the quaking earth 
— the volcanic mountain. Then bring the grand 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 47 

and soothing, the awful and gracious truths of Christ 
before the mind — softer than the melody of the 
whispering wind, as it creeps from flower to flower; 
more beautiful than the light that dwells in the day- 
star, will be the voice of God, uttered in the word — 
will be the grace of God, echoed in the heart. 

A keen sense of literary beauty, even in the 
Bible, is not piety. A man may enjoy the Bible, 
or the eloquent exposition of the Bible, with the 
greatest zest, and yet not have a single spark of 
love to God or faith in Christ. There is in the 
Bible, a moral force entirely independent of rhetori- 
cal beauty — a penetrating power — a voice of com- 
mand, which springs from its divinity, and seals it 
and proves it. The exceeding preciousness of the 
Bible, to the poor and miserable, the down-cast 
and the down-trodden, can hardly be understood or 
conceived of, by the prosperous and the gay, the 
worldly minded and the proud hearted. What could 
Dives, clothed in purple and faring sumptuously 
every day, know of the soul of Lazarus, feeding on 
the heavenly promises, while in want of what is 
needful for the body ; and soon to be borne by an- 
gels from the rich man's gate to Abraham's bosom? 
We naturally cling to the earth, and it requires for 
the most part, a forcible blow to detach us from it. 
The sons and daughters of affliction need the sun- 
light, that beams from the loving face of the Man 
of Sorrows, the Friend and Saviour of sinners. 
They need his sweet sympathy. Disappointed and 



48 

unhappy here, they look to heaven. Forsaken of 
man, they take refuge in God. Weary and heavy 
laden, they turn to him, who gives rest to the soul. 
Such are truly blessed ; led by trouble to rest ; by 
want of friends, to "an innumerable company" of 
saints and angels ; by human desertion, to the com- 
panionship of the Lord of glory; by poverty on 
earth, to durable riches in heaven ; by shame, and 
sorrow, and death, to honour, and joy, and life 
everlasting. 

The trifling, the self satisfied, the shallow minded, 
the grossly sensual, the deeply deluded, may heed 
not, may feel not, this spiritual accordance of the 
revelations of God and the needs of the soul ; for 
they have not the depth of conviction on any sub- 
ject; the seriousness, the heart knowledge, to 
hearken to the word of God in the Bible, or to lis- 
ten to the voice of God uttering his oracles from the 
Shekinah of conscience. In the great events of 
life, when the strongest passions, such as fear, re- 
morse, and grief, are stirred to their depths, nothing 
but the Christian religion can soothe and still the 
soul. Books of amusement and gay exhibitions 
may serve to occupy the vacant mind, and business 
of importance may employ more serious hours. But 
there are seasons, when both of these are felt to be 
unsatisfying and impertinent; when grander aims 
and graver cares than belong to this fleeting scene, 
are felt and owned to be the proper portion of the 
immortal spirit. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 49 

The largest rivers empty into the sea; so the 
deepest feelings terminate in religion, or tend to- 
ward it. In the wonder working providence of God, 
men are often led to lasting happiness by transient 
troubles — the loss of property, friends, or children ; 
and this is the use which the wise will always strive 
to make of the adverse dispensations of heaven ; 
adopting the prayer of Moses: " So teach us to 
number our days that we may apply our hearts unto 
wisdom/ ' Deep as is the heart of man, the Christian 
religion is still deeper. It may have little attrac- 
tion for the gay, the superficial, the light minded; 
but the old, the disappointed, the wretched, the 
sadly and the truly wise — who have tested and 
sounded human life, and have been taught by bitter 
experience to sigh for a better portion — taught by 
heavenly grace, turn with irrepressible eagerness to 
the consolatory and sublime hope of immortality. 

There is not a promise of the word of God, which 
has not inspired the heart of many an afflicted saint 
with unspeakable comfort. How often has a single 
text of Scripture, made the object of an appropriat- 
ing faith, darted an instant sunshine into the 
darkened heart ! As hunger naturally disposes us 
to seek food, as thirst to crave drink, as weariness 
to long for rest; so a wise sorrow, a sadness of the 
heart, sanctified and blessed, prepares us to desire 
the bread of heaven, causes us to cry for that 
living water of which if a man drink he shall never 
thirst. There is a constant intercourse by faith 
5 



50 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

and prayer, between heaven and earth ; as the rain 
comes down from heaven and returns again in 
vapour ; so grace comes down into the heart and 
returns in the fragrant breath of prayer and praise. 

No one need ever fear that he will exhaust the 
Christian religion ; that he will get to the bottom 
of it, that he will find it old and impotent, effete and 
barren. It is a perpetual novelty, not indeed in 
the substance of its revelations, but in our personal 
apprehension and experience of them. On every 
occasion of life, which shakes and startles us, and 
discovers, as by a flash of lightning, the mysteries 
of our moral being, and exhibits to our own eyes the 
unsuspected depths of our own nature, shows us our 
mortal weakness and our immortal strength, then 
will the authentic revelation of Him, who was the 
Son of God, and the Man of Sorrows, of him who 
at one moment wept by the grave of Lazarus, and 
the next moment said unto him, " Lazarus, come 
forth !" then will this revelation appear to us in a 
light new and fresh and wonderful, in aspect beau- 
tiful and benign, sublime in its dimensions, expand- 
ing on every side beyond the most enlarged capa- 
cities of the soul, an inscrutable, an eternal, an in- 
finite reality ; recognized by the clear spirit, as true 
when most it needs, discerns, and delights in the 
truth. 

The grandeur of the Christian revelation may 
be inferred from the fact, not only that it has seemed 
grandest to the purest and most exalted of our 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 51 

race, but that it seems grandest even to them, when 
the mind is in its purest and loftiest mood, when it 
rises above its ordinary level — when, conscious of 
its own inherent, spiritual dignity, it looks up in 
filial worship to the Father of Spirits, whose eter- 
nal Son hath taken to himself our nature. In the 
material universe, we see the glory of God con- 
sidered absolutely — his eternal power and Godhead. 
In scripture, we see his glory as it is in the face of 
Jesus Christ. His grace as a Saviour sheds a sweet 
and tender light over every other attribute. This 
is indeed " the mystery of godliness — God manifest 
in the flesh ; justified in the spirit ; seen of angels ; 
preached unto the Gentiles; believed on in the 
world ; received up into glory. 1 Tim. iii. 16. 

The Christian religion is myriad-sided. It may 
be considered as an instrument of present and pal- 
pable good ; as the cement and conservator of 
human society. It touches and connects the most 
distant extremes. It at once teaches man true 
humility, by revealing the true God in his true glory ; 
and it lifts him to an inward and abiding elevation, 
by conscious communion with the God whom he 
adores, like the rainbow that spans the sky and 
seems to touch the earth, at once connecting and 
beautifying both. The Christian religion, in the 
highest sense and in its purest exercise, is the 
believing w T orship of God, revealed in Christ as re- 
conciling the world unto himself, not imputing 
their trespasses unto them. It is therefore the 



52 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

highest attainment of a redeemed creature ; the 
supreme blessedness of the adopted sons of God. 
The love of God, shed abroad in the heart by the 
Holy Ghost, is not only the most sublime but the 
most delightful affection of which the human soul 
is capable. It is that water of life of which if a 
man drink he shall never thirst. It is that wine, of 
which the miraculous wine of Cana may be taken 
as the symbol and the pledge, of all the gifts of 
God, the flower and the crown. 

There is hardly any experience of human life, 
there is hardly any form of human sorrow, which 
does not impart additional significance and sweetness 
to the Christian Scriptures. Many a man has read 
the narratives of our Lord's miraculous cures, with 
comparative indifference when in health ; and when 
worn by sickness, he has learned to peruse the same 
passages with the deepest sympathy and delight. 
But whatever our outward lot, no one can truly 
understand the Scriptures without the internal unc- 
tion of the Holy Ghost ; no one can rightly enter 
into the truths they contain without His spiritual 
illumination and guidance. We cannot, for instance, 
receive the doctrine of total depravity, without such 
an apprehension of the evil of our own hearts as no 
man can attain without the teaching of the Holy 
Ghost ; and he who has been the subject of that 
gracious enlightening, feels that nothing that the 
Scriptures affirm of the depravity of the heart is 
too strong, because he knows something of the evil 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 53 

of his own heart. Nor will any man ever learn to 
estimate aright the preciousness of Christ, who has 
not been taught of God, to hate the pollution of 
sin, and strive after inward, absolute, universal 
holiness. 

The word of God is a well-ordered armoury, in 
which we may find a weapon fitted and furbished, for 
every occasion. 1 Tim. iii. 17. Eph. v. 11-17. 
In having the Scriptures, we are richer than we 
know. There may be truths in the Scriptures, 
which we have not yet learned to understand, to 
feel, to prize, simply because we have not yet been 
placed in circumstances to make us need their 
power and taste their sweetness. In passing over 
the field of the word of God, and little heeding the 
precious treasures imbedded in its hidden depths, 
we are like the simple Aborigines of our own broad 
land who roamed, careless and thoughtless, over 
mines of golden ore. 

The Bible is a firmament, in which new stars of 
surpassing brilliancy are continually coming forth 
to our view ; and it may be that the light that dwells 
in some — the unfulfilled prophecies — has not trav- 
elled to the earth, to the present time. Doubtless our 
understanding of the manifold wisdom of God, re- 
vealed in his word, will be advancing through all 
eternity, in due proportion to the expansion of our 
faculties, and our personal experience of an exceed- 
ing and eternal weight of glory. No other lan- 
guage than that of God himself can adequately set 
5* 



54 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

forth the present experience of a child of God ; his 
sense of the sinfulness of sin, of what he owes to 
the sovereign grace of God the Father; of what 
Christ, his Saviour, is made unto him of God ; his 
habitual impression of the incomparable glories of 
his Saviour's person, and the exceeding greatness 
of the reward that there is even now in keeping his 
commandments. 

" Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth 
not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that 
when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we 
shall see him as he is." 1 John iii. 2. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 55 



LECTURE III. 

TRANSCENDENT NATURE OF THE DOCTRINES OF DIVINE 
REVELATION. 

The transcendent nature of the Christian doctrines, 
so far from being an objection, constitutes a peculiar 
and a necessary proof of the divine origin of the 
Christian revelation. The sphere of thought of a 
man of genius is altogether inconceivable to an 
ordinary mind ; how much more the divine counsels 
to the most exalted created intelligence ! There 
are accordingly things in the Bible, which previous 
to experience we should not expect to find there ; 
and other things are not there which we should 
naturally anticipate. This singular character of the 
sacred record is conditioned in the first place on the 
perfection of Grod, its Author ; in the second, on the 
ignorance, weakness, and guilt of man, to whom it 
is addressed. It is a supernatural revelation of the 
infinite and all-perfect God, to fallen and finite man. 
This we should remember when reading it, and there- 
fore not be suprised at the presence of mysteries. 

The Apostle Paul repeatedly affirms that the re- 



56 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

velations of God are beyond the reach of human 
philosophy ; that the wit of man is wholly incom- 
petent, not merely to discover, but to understand 
them ; that they can neither be anticipated nor re- 
ceived by the wisdom of men, and that we cannot 
possibly attain to the saving knowledge of them 
but by the unction of the Holy One. This is un- 
questionably true in regard to many of the facts 
and doctrines which the Bible discloses. They are 
such as men never would have suspected ; such as 
they never could have dared to look for in a revela- 
tion from God; such as in fact they could not 
possibly have affirmed beforehand to be there with- 
out the utmost impiety. And this, not because there 
is any fact or doctrine delivered in the Bible, un- 
worthy of the holiness or the majesty of God, but 
chiefly because of the transcendent grace, the 
unsearchable wisdom, the ineffable condescension, 
the far-reaching providence of God, seemingly and 
for a season perplexed, tortuous, standing still, like 
the pillar of cloud, but ever keeping the purposed 
end in view, spreading over nations, comprehending 
centuries ; slowly unrolled and unravelled, but 
never for a moment suspended or slumbering, never 
lost sight of, never defeated ; working out its secret 
and its declared purposes, alike by enemies and 
friends ; at times swiftly and conspicuously ; at times 
obscurely and slowly ; suffering long ages to inter- 
vene, and seeming slack concerning his promises ; 
then riding upon the wings of the wind, making the 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 57 

clouds his chariots, and causing a nation to be born 
in a day. What mortal could have anticipated the 
first, the central truth of revealed religion, that of 
God manifest in the flesh dying for our sins ? Or 
having conceived of such an event, would have dared 
to utter it in words ? Who would not have feared 
that the lightnings of heaven, the hot thunderbolts 
of God, would instantly blast him for giving utter- 
ance to such an amazing imagination ? How hard 
do we find it now ourselves fully to believe this 
capital article of our creed, with all its awful and 
consoling consequences, and to make our fellow 
men believe it, when it is not an unauthorized ima- 
gination of the thought of the heart, but a recog- 
nized doctrine of the Christian church; when it is 
not cloudily unfolded or scantily witnessed or feebly 
affirmed, but shone upon by a perfect flood of day, 
the grand lesson, the governing idea, the paramount 
truth of all the Evangelists and of all the Apostles 
alike ! 

In the very difficulties of belief we find our answer 
to the infidel and sceptic, in the very fact that the 
most characteristic and the most obtrusive and un- 
questionable doctrines of the Bible are so hard to 
be understood, are so apt to be wrested, are so often 
and so obstinately and so bitterly rejected; on this 
very ground do we build our argument, for the 
divine origin and the binding authority of this re- 
velation. For God's thoughts are not as our thoughts, 
nor his ways as our ways. If mere men — uninspired 



58 

men had made this book, it would have been more 
like their work. It would have been more in har- 
mony with their preconceptions. It would have 
been more congenial to their tastes. But being the 
work of God, it is like God, in knowledge, wisdom, 
holiness, goodness, and truth. It has the stamp and 
seal of his supreme divinity on every page ; it has 
his sacred superscription, his uncreated image on 
every doctrine. 

From their heavenly import and origin, from their 
superhuman nature, they never could be divined by 
the wit of man. Even a wise man's counsels are 
beyond the ken of an idiot ; a liberal man's spirit, 
above the comprehension of a churl. How far 
above, out of sight, are the eternal counsels of the 
most high God ! the wisdom and grace of the 
" Father of lights, from whom cometh down every 
good and every perfect gift." 

That which constitutes the proper and peculiar 
glory of the gospel, is its revelation of a class of truths, 
of all others the most needful, precious, and high, 
which the most enlightened and thoughtful of the 
children of men never could find out ; which were 
inaccessible to the human understanding in their 
very nature, wholly unattainable otherwise than by 
the gift, incommunicable save by the wisdom and 
the grace, of God. The characters graven on the 
gospel are incomparably more glorious than those 
impressed on the material universe. For if the 
eternal power and Godhead of Jehovah are clearly 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 59 

seen in sun, moon and stars, the flowers and birds 
and trees and sparkling waters, his tender mercy 
beams brightest in the gospel of his Son : and if 
the law, which as a glorious mirror at once revealed 
and reflected his unspotted holiness, was given by 
Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 

The very design of a supernatural revelation from 
God is to disclose truths beyond the unaided ken 
of man; to unveil what otherwise would remain 
for ever secret. And just in proportion to the 
sacredness, the vitality, the elevation, and the 
transcendent preciousness of the truths revealed, is 
their seeming remoteness from the ordinary appre- 
hensions of the human mind. The body of revealed 
truths which specifically constitute the gospel of 
our salvation, which refer more directly to the con- 
stitution of the person of Christ, God and man in 
two natures yet one person for ever ; and which turn 
upon the nature and design of the work of Christ, 
dying for our sins according to the Scriptures, and 
rising again from the dead a divine Victor over death 
and over him that had the power of death, even the 
Devil, the present lapsed state of human nature 
through the original offence of one man, whose sin 
in eating the forbidden fruit "brought death into the 
world and all our woe;' ' the indispensable need of the 
Holy Ghost to cleanse and sanctify our infected 
nature ; the whole nature of our ingrafting into 
Christ by faith ; our effectual calling, adoption, 
justification, sanctification, peace of conscience, and 



60 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

assured hope of a blessed immortality — these things 
pertain to the gospel properly and peculiarly. 
They are absolutely its own, without the obscurest 
hint in any of the eloquent voices of the material 
world, without trace or footprint in any path that 
uninstructed man had trodden. 

From the necessity of the case therefore, unless 
we get our information from the Bible, we must re- 
main in utter ignorance on subjects of everlasting 
moment to us all. The distinctive doctrines of di- 
vine revelation, are of such a transcendent charac- 
ter — so remote from the apprehension of any crea- 
ted mind — so entirely without the faintest hint or 
notice in all nature, that they never can be known 
at all if they are not known from inspired Scripture. 
The constitution of the divine nature — the doctrine 
of the Holy Trinity, of three persons and one essence, 
the same in substance, equal in power and glory, which 
underlies and interpenetrates the whole scheme of 
redemption by Christ Jesus — is a doctrine of which 
there is no trace in nature, no shadow in reason, 
and no prophecy in man. 

There is another view of this subject incompara- 
bly more awful and appalling. The difficulty in the 
way of our anticipating the gracious counsels of hea- 
ven which we have just glanced at, is one which arises 
mainly from their superhuman elevation, from their 
unfathomable riches in glory. But the difficulty which 
I wish now to point out, is one which inheres not in 
the subject but in us, having its foundation in our 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 61 

depravity, and foolishness, and slowness of heart to 
believe all that the prophets of God have taught. The 
invisible God has afforded us in the creatures with their 
endless diversities of form, colour, habit, instinct, and 
element, with their varied classes, ranks, natures, 
and degrees of intelligence, a clear and beautiful 
mirror of his wisdom, so that such as possessed a 
single spark of sound judgment, might be hurried 
away into the involuntary adoration of himself. 
Rom. i. 20 ; 1 Cor. i. 21. But how far this is from 
the truth, let the sad experience of all heathen na- 
tions bear witness. The wisest of them have been 
able to rise little if at all above the most illiterate 
and debased, in their apprehensions of the true na- 
ture and right worship of God. Egypt, the cradle 
of knowledge and the arts, worshipped the most de- 
spised animals, the most loathsome reptiles ; and the 
great nations of classic antiquity feigned innumera- 
ble gods, like unto themselves, vain, licentious, and 
bloody-minded. The sense of man, which is so 
strong and sagacious in regard to earthly things, is 
inexpressibly weak and dark in its apprehensions 
of things heavenly. " The sense of man," in a pas- 
sage quoted by Lord Bacon, "is aptly said to resem- 
ble the sun, which openeth and revealeth the ter- 
restrial globe, but obscureth and concealeth the 
celestial ; so doth the sense discover natural things, 
but darken and shut up divine." 

It appears, therefore, that men, even the wisest 

and the most cultivated of them, not less than the 
6 



62 

multitude, are apt not merely to overlook or mis- 
take, but to corrupt and reject the truth ; and this, not 
merely in regard to the obscurer and lower lessons 
graven on the creation, but equally in regard to the 
clearer and higher revelations of the gospel. For 
this very reason does the apostle call the proclama- 
tion of the glorious gospel of the blessed God — that 
which alone reveals his well-beloved Son as the Au- 
thor and Finisher of faith — the preaching of foolish- 
ness. It does indeed seem foolishness to the wise 
men of this world, who scruple not to tax with folly 
the sacred truth of God, drunk with false confidence, 
and blind with ignorant rage. What distinctive 
doctrine of the gospel is there — what doctrine so 
plainly revealed, so precious to his saints, so essential 
to his truth and glory, that men held in reputation 
for wisdom and honour have not rejected — openly, 
obstinately, blasphemously rejected ? What can 
seem more absurd to human reason than that God 
should take to himself our nature, and as a man 
should die ; that the life of the world should be 
obnoxious to death ; that the very light of heaven 
should be extinguished in preternatural darkness ; 
that the righteousness of God should be covered 
over with the likeness of sin ; that the chastisement 
of our peace should be inflicted on the Holy One ; 
that the Bringer of salvation, the Giver of the bless- 
ing, should be made sin, and subject to the curse for 
us ; and that in this way, and this only, men are 
to be redeemed from death and made partakers of 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 63 

a happy immortality ; sin is to be destroyed, and 
righteousness to reign, and death, and the curse, to 
be swallowed up for ever ! Nevertheless, the 
God-enlightened, the God-anointed know, that the 
gospel is the supreme wisdom of God, though that 
wisdom be veiled in mystery from the vision of the 
wise — a wisdom whose holy heights scan, nay rise 
above the heavens themselves, and into whose fa- 
thomless depths, the angels desire to look. Of 
all mysteries in religion, this is the sum and the 
chief, that, u when we were without strength, in due 
time Christ died for the ungodly." 

The revelations of God are beyond the reach of 
human philosophy, and contravene the conclusions 
of human reason, not only in their greatness and 
majesty, but in the method and measure of their 
manifestation. This may be illustrated in what 
may be styled Evangelic obscurities. 

There are many practical difficulties of this sort 
which strike the minds not only of open infidels, 
who studiously hunt for objections, but of plain 
people and even devout Christians, who would 
gladly know, believe, and do the truth. There is a 
class of men who have never felt the deep signifi- 
cance of human life ; who have never conscientiously 
striven to know their duty toward God and to do 
it ; who read the Bible and hear the gospel, not to 
learn the truth but merely to cavil, to trifle, to show 
their ingenuity, to gratify their vanity, to scatter 
fire-brands, arrows, and death ; and say, Am not I in 



64 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

sport ? Now I have not a word for such as these, 
except to say, " Behold ye despisers, and wonder, and 
perish !" "fools make a mock at sin and God will 
bring every secret thing into judgment. ,, But there 
is another class to whom we cannot refuse the tri- 
bute of our respect and sympathy. It is those who 
honestly meditate on the word and providence of 
God, and are at once perplexed and pained by the 
difficulties which they find in both. That God should 
have reserved the full revelation of the gospel for 
four thousand years is a providential fact of marked 
character, and is in direct conflict with every natu- 
ral anticipation. It has accordingly " given pause" 
to many a thoughtful mind. In the long lapse of 
time from the apostasy and the promise, to the in- 
carnation and sacrifice of the Redeemer, many have 
found matter of sad and troubled thought. Now it 
is not so much my concern, to vindicate this dispen- 
sation, to assign the probable grounds and reasons 
of it, to show that the lesson to be taught us of the 
imbecility of the human understanding in relation 
to divine things, of the impotence of man to devise 
a way of salvation, and to order his life according 
to the rule of righteousness, was of sufficient mo- 
ment to explain and to justify it ; or that such a 
preparation would naturally dispose and fit the 
world to receive the revealed Redeemer with be- 
coming sensibility and gladness — all of which is 
unquestionably true and of the highest importance; 
nor to insist upon the retro-active virtue of the 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 65 

Saviour's death, extending in its saving power to 
the Patriarchs and Prophets, to Abel and Abraham, 
as well as to the apostles and to us. My simple 
purpose is to show that this difficulty, however it 
may arise, however it may be removed, is in har- 
mony with other dispensations of God. If the 
gospel is not what men w r ould have expected to find 
it, what men would have made it, in its provisions, no 
more is it in its progress. If it is alien from the na- 
tural apprehensions of men in its substance, it is alien 
to these apprehensions in its development. So that if 
it be inconsistent with the untutored anticipations of 
human reason, it is at least, throughout, and con- 
spicuously consistent with itself, which is far better. 
The principle alleged is comprehensive enough 
to apply to other difficulties, nearer and more press- 
ing than this. It will apply to the future as well as 
the past ; to the slow progress of love and light on 
the earth; not merely the introduction and existence, 
but the prevalence and persistency of sin and ignor- 
ance among the nations. This is a difficulty which 
thinking men cannot altogether evade. So far, 
indeed, as men are concerned, as the church is con- 
cerned, as we are concerned, alas ! there is no diffi- 
culty in the case. The light of the gospel has shone 
so dimly, so feebly, over so scanty an area, because 
the proper light-bearers, light-dispensers, have been 
themselves so dark and so faithless ; because instead 
of being themselves filled and glorified by this light, 

transfigured by its power, and translucent with its 
6* 



66 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

brightness, bearing it aloft and bearing it every 
where, it has been hidden under a bushel, it has 
been hardly able to shine obscurely out from the 
overlying mass of unbelief, and covetousness, and 
worldliness in ourselves, and we have done little and 
thought little to send it abroad. But in its rela- 
tion to the sovereign dispensations of God, let us 
not be embarrassed or alarmed, but pray with in- 
creasing faith and fervency, " Thy kingdom come. 
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven ;" and 
cry and sigh with Calvin, and other fervent saints, 
afflicted and cast down but not in despair, perse- 
cuted but not forsaken, " Lord, how long ? In the 
midst of the years make known, in wrath remember 
mercy.' ' 

The patience with which God now endures the 
reign of evil, the aspect and the character which the 
world bears under the dominion of Satan, is a 
standing trial of the believer's faith, and it is yet a 
majestic monument of the wisdom and grace of 
God, whose thoughts are not as our thoughts, and 
whose ways are not as our ways. All his schemes and 
movements are on a scale of infinite grandeur. 
With him a thousand years are as one day, and one 
day as a thousand years. Nothing can occur in 
the succession of times, and in the infinite variety 
of events and agents, to frustrate his purpose, or to 
disconcert his plans. All was foreseen, all was 
foreordained positively or permissively, and all will 
ultimately be overruled for the clearer manifesta- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 67 

tion of his own glory in the eternal salvation of 
his own children. Those very evils which now 
" perplex and dash our maturest counsels" will be 
found to work in most harmoniously with his con- 
cealed but cherished ends. When we contemplate 
these difficulties therefore, the part of wisdom is not 
to indulge scepticism, but to exercise faith, seeing 
they are in perfect keeping with the general plan 
and procedure of divine Providence. Let us be 
thankful for the gospel which, by bringing " life and 
immortality to light," scatters the darkness which 
would otherwise encompass his ways, and await with 
patience and hope the final " manifestation of the 
sons of God." 

If the gospel be beyond the compass or the 
comprehension of nature, then it is evident that 
ministers should set it forth in all its simplicity, 
however repugnant to the notions or repulsive to 
the tastes of the natural man. It requires great 
faith to preach the gospel, as it ought to be 
preached. It requires spiritual discernment to per- 
ceive its spiritual glory and repose with unswerving 
confidence in its power to save. It is the simple 
truth that Jesus Christ came down from heaven to 
die for lost sinners that we must trust in, to be 
saved. Whosoever believeth in Jesus shall be 
saved ; and the more simple the faith, the more 
child-like your trust in him, in his merit, his 
power, his grace, his perfect willingness to re- 
ceive and bless all that come unto him and for his 



68 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

own name's sake to bestow upon them the Holy 
Spirit, the better. Luke xi. 13. Strange as it may- 
seem, there are those in Christian lands who do not un- 
derstand, and cannot be made to understand, the gos- 
pel of our salvation. They can repeat the Creed, the 
Ten Commandments, and give some tolerable ac- 
count of the plan of salvation, and yet they do not 
truly, spiritually, practically, understand the gospel. 
They have never seen its spiritual beauty and glory. 
They have never beheld it from the true point of 
view. If they have seriously directed their eyes to 
this spiritual firmament, lit up with the highest 
splendours of the Father of lights, it has been as 
through an inverted telescope. They have never 
perceived the sovereign glory of God in the free 
forgiveness of guilty sinners, for the sake of Christ. 
Therefore, they have no sympathy with the grate- 
ful song of the redeemed in heaven : " Unto him that 
loved us and washed us in his own blood, and hath 
made us kings and priests unto God and the Father, 
unto him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, 
Amen." 

It is surely not less evident, from the considera- 
tion of its transcendent nature, that a hearty ac- 
quiescence in the gospel doctrine is one of the 
plainest marks of saving grace, as the rejection of 
the gospel, though by men who are deeply religious 
according to their own scheme of salvation, is one of 
the saddest signs of final reprobation and ruin. 
When Dr. Archibald Alexander was about to die, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 69 

and was looking for the last time for the evidence 
of his preparation for death, he tells us that he took 
a deliberate survey of the scheme of salvation offered 
in the Bible, and was conscious that he embraced it 
and could rest on it. This view of the subject, so 
purely objective and practical, might possibly sim- 
plify the enquiry to the mind of many a timid and 
doubtful disciple, conscious of much indwelling cor- 
ruption, and embarrassed by artificial and minute 
tests of piety. We are sometimes confused by the 
multiplicity of the marks of a true faith which have 
been devised and recommended, and are discouraged 
because our own experience does not completely cor- 
respond with them. And when we search in the 
dark and dusty and winding passages of our own 
hearts, we cannot in many cases interpret our own 
spiritual state in a manner satisfactory to ourselves. 
They are too often indeed like the vineyard of the 
slothful, all grown over with thorns and briers, and 
the stone wall thereof overthrown, so that if there 
be the fair flower of grace in them and the fragrant 
fruits of righteousness, they are so covered over as 
to be well nigh, if not altogether, imperceptible. 
How comforting then to have a test so plain, so 
clear, in a sense so outward and open as this ! 
Does my heart now fully acquiesce in this simple, 
scriptural method of salvation by the atoning sac- 
rifice of the Lord Jesus ? Does it seem to me all 
that is needed, and just what is needed ? Do I let no 



70 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

other trust intrude, but simply take the offered gift, 
receive and rest upon the revealed Redeemer ? 

The substitution of external rites, though of 
divine origin, or any system of human philosophy, 
or an amalgamation of the two, for the pure gospel of 
the Son of God dying for our sins, is fatal to the 
soul. There is a deep seated disposition in human 
nature to depend upon something that men can do, 
instead of trusting simply and only to what Christ 
has done to save them. This is precisely what Paul 
charged upon the Jews. Rejecting the righteousness 
of God, they went about to establish their own right- 
eousness, and so came short of the salvation of the 
gospel. We see the same evil leaven of will-worship 
and self-righteousness at work in unregenerate men 
now. They are impatient of unconditional sub- 
mission to the authority of God, even as it is exer- 
cised in the dispensation of his grace. Allied to 
this is a secret tendency to substitute some system 
of human philosophy for the soul-humbling truths 
of revealed religion. Disgusted and confounded by 
the simplicity of the gospel method of salvation, 
they are tempted to exclaim with the proud Syrian, 
" Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, 
better than all the waters of Israel ? May I not 
wash in them and be clean ?" and like him they are 
ready to go away in a rage. Now let me urge such 
with all solemnity to give heed to the simple doctrine 
of the gospel, to take the Saviour at his word, to 
renounce all trust in their own merit and strength, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 71 

and as dying men, to look up to the living, gracious, 
interceding Saviour and live ! 

Since all the efforts even of the wisest men to 
devise a way of salvation for themselves have uni- 
formly proved abortive, there is a clear obligation 
resting on the church to preach the gospel to every 
creature. 

Shall we whose souls are lighted 

With wisdom from on high — 
Shall we to men benighted 

The lamp of life deny ? 

It is surely a very remarkable fact that the Jews 
should have had so much more just and exalted 
apprehensions of religious truth than the Greeks — 
a nation otherwise incomparably more cultivated 
and intellectual. The only Jewish literature, of 
any account, is religious, and that is as far above 
the most famous productions of Grecian genius, as 
the inspired work of the eternal Spirit is above the na- 
tive offspring of the human mind. Our first great 
duty to the world is to give it the gospel, as the one 
great want of the world is the knowledge of the 
gospel. Spread abroad then this pure, this mighty 
gospel. Wherever apostate man is found, let the 
saving grace of Christ be known. As you prize 
this blessed boon yourself, send it forth on the 
wings of the wind — to the ends of the earth. 



72 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 



LECTURE IV. 

THE SENTIMENTAL AND THE SCRIPTURAL THEOLOGY. 

The paternal character of God is one in which 
we naturally delight to contemplate him. It is one 
which he does actually sustain toward the w T hole 
human race, as is clearly taught by the light of 
nature, and made still more certain by the authority 
of an inspired apostle, who quotes and adopts the 
sentiment of a Greek poet, " For we are also his 
offspring/' Acts xvii. 28. There is unquestiona- 
bly much in the varied and exuberant goodness of 
God, as we behold it in the forms of nature and in 
the facts of Providence, to beget filial confidence in 
the mind of a good man ; but there is still enough, 
even in these, to dispel the notion of unmingled 
benevolence. God does, indeed, reveal himself in 
the endearing relation of a Father ; but he is Mani- 
fested not less clearly in the awful character of a 
Judge. Even in this world, there are painful events 
which show his righteousness, quite as impressively 
as any which proclaim his benevolence ; and this, 
we should remember, is only a rudimentary, not a 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 73 

completed and final state. Hence, the tendencies 
of things are all that appear, the full consummation 
is reserved for eternity. 

The general tendency of the light literature of 
the present day is to descant in soft and sentimental 
terms on the benevolence of God, which these 
writers represent as not only inexhaustible, but 
indiscriminate ; in relation to his other attributes 
supreme and despotic, in relation to the objects of 
its exercise altogether irrespective of moral char- 
acter. This favourite attribute they delight to hon- 
our, not only to the disparagement, but to the 
exclusion of his righteousness. To this end, they 
exalt certain pleasing facts and phenomena, and 
studiously keep out of view all of an opposite nature. 
Thus the God that has taken possession of the 
popular mind is not the God of the Bible ; he is an 
easy, indulgent being, who disapproves of sin in 
his creatures, and has testified against it, but who 
will not be very rigorous in its punishment. 

Such views savour rather of romance than reality, 
and correspond rather with the wishes than the 
experience of men. In nature, God appears not 
only in the sunny and smiling landscape, but 
in the tornado and tempest. He not only sends 
fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and glad- 
ness, but gaunt famine, wasting pestilence, blighting 
mildew. We see the triumphal chariot, but it is met 
by the funeral hearse. We hear the voice of mirth and 
revelry, but if we listen for a moment, we shall hear 
7 



74 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

notes of sadness and fear. Laughter is followed 
by a sigh. We can scarcely enjoy our present 
possessions, from the dread that we shall lose them. 
The beauty, which we gaze on with joy to-day, to- 
morrow may be laid in the grave. The labour of 
years may be destroyed by the forgetfulness of an 
hour. The inheritance of many generations may 
be lost by the heedlessness of a servant, or an acci- 
dental spark, or an unexpected flood. The world, 
in which we live, is subject to decay and change. 
Our life-long friend may betray or forsake us. 
Slander may blacken our names, and those we love 
as our own souls may be smitten by death. Sorrow 
is written on every human countenance, in charac- 
ters which none can mistake. The most happy on 
earth are only the least miserable. 

There may be beings in the universe, toward 
whom the infinite Author of all manifests himself 
in the tenderness of a purely paternal character ; 
because, toward them, there may be no occasion for 
the vindication of rights which have never been 
invaded, or the enforcement of claims which have 
never been disputed. But not thus assuredly does 
he manifest himself toward us, who have been guilty 
of such foul revolt. Toward us, he reveals himself 
in the awful terrors of injured justice, of outraged 
and indignant majesty. 

Now, we experience an alternation of good and 
ill ; of joy and sorrow ; of pain and pleasure ; of 
health and sickness ; of life to be followed by, to 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 75 

end with, to be swallowed up in death. Our earthl y 
condition is not simple but mixed ; our earthly expe- 
rience is not a complete and consistent whole, but 
fragmentary and imperfect ; not homogeneous, not of 
a piece, but contradictory and conflicting. We are 
rarely well, even in body ; not merely free altogether 
from pain, but in a state of positive bodily enjoyment, 
in which the very sense of existence is a conscious de- 
light. And if the body be diseased and partially dis- 
abled, in the mind of every man there is a certain un- 
soundness. Each man has his own particular folly ; 
his constitutional infirmity ; his besetting sin. Heb. 
xii. 1. On some subjects and to some extent we 
are all insane, or have been ; we may have sense 
enough for ordinary purposes, but pure reason and 
perfect knowledge we have not. We seek it, but it 
for ever eludes our grasp, as flies from our approach 
like the horizon ; or in mathematics, two lines 
approach each other for ever, and never touch ; or 
in natural philosophy, our hypothetical estimates 
are never absolutely exact, and we must make some 
allowance for friction and rigidity of cordage. Ig- 
norance and error encompass the very wisest men 
in relation to the most important matters. 

There are those, who make it a matter of ostenta- 
tious boast, that they fear not God, and regard it as 
the mark of a weak and craven spirit to fear him. 
But who is this dreadful God? And who are these 
puny creatures who presume to despise and defy 
him ? He i& the great and dreadful God ; mighty 



76 THE TRUE PATH, OK THE 

in counsel and excellent in working, who planted 
the pillars of the earth, and can remove them out of 
their places, who giveth to all men life and breath 
and all things, in whose hand our breath is, and 
whose are all our ways, who appointeth the moon for 
seasons and whose sun knoweth his going down, who 
doth his will among the armies of heaven and among 
the inhabitants of the earth, who turneth man to 
destruction and saith, a Return ye children of men." 
" Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even ac- 
cording to thy fear so is thy wrath;" Ps. xc. 11. 
" Who would not fear thee, King of nations ? for 
unto thee doth it appertain." Jer. x. 7. And who 
is man that he should dare to contemn the wrath of 
the Almighty ? The creature of a day, a worm of 
the dust, crushed before the moth, liable to instant 
death, from an invisible insect or atom ; dependent 
for his continued existence on the gracious energy 
of that awful Being, whom he so audaciously pro- 
vokes. Of all the follies that men on the earth 
commit, the most fruitful and fatal is to cast off 
the fear of God. 

So far as it regards the insult offered to the di- 
vine Majesty, and the injury which they themselves 
sustain, it is perfectly immaterial whether this in- 
sane confidence is built on the belief that God is 
unable or that he is unwilling to punish them. Of 
one class it is true that they are like the Sadducees of 
old, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. 
The other class attribute to the God of truth and 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 77 

righteousness the same insensibility to sin which 
they find in themselves, and he might truly address 
them in the language of the prophet Asaph, " Thou 
thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy- 
self ; but I will reprove thee and set them in order 
before thine eyes." Ps. 1. 21. 

Upon no subject are men prone to fall into more 
serious and hurtful error, than in regard to what 
they imagine suitable to the character of God. 
Losing sight of that pure and glorious Being whom 
the Bible reveals to our faith and worship, they 
form in their foolish hearts, a God like themselves. 
This has always been the disposition of corrupt 
mankind. It was so in the time of the Apostle 
Paul. It is so now. Then they turned the truth 
of God into a lie ; i. e., they exchanged the true 
God for a false one. They could not behold his 
holiness and truth, without self-condemnation and 
alarm ; and therefore they divested him of these 
attributes in their thoughts and adapted the service 
which they offered him, not to his majesty and ex- 
cellence, but to the erroneous and degrading concep- 
tions which they had formed of his nature. Thus 
they disrobed him of his real and essential glories, 
and arrayed him in false and imaginary perfections. 
So we find in our own day that there are men who 
profess unlimited veneration for the divine character; 
representing themselves as his only true and worthy 
worshippers ; declaring that all who assert his 

punitive justice do dishonour to his nature, and make 
7* 



78 

him out a cruel and sanguinary tyrant, exulting in 
the eternal agonies of his hapless offspring. While 
affecting to honour God, they are heaping upon him 
the foulest indignity. While in words magnifying 
his mercy and grace, they in fact strip him of holi- 
ness, justice, and truth. They array our Lord in 
purple and put a sceptre in his hands, but it is in 
mockery and scorn. They seem to surpass his 
most devoted followers in expressions of reverence 
and esteem, but the only tendency of their caresses 
is to betray and to crucify. They impiously affirm 
that God is too merciful to visit the transgressions 
of a finite and fallible creature with everlasting 
woe. Miserable men ! how fatal the delusion in 
which you are held captive ! When was God too 
merciful to punish sin unrepented, unforsaken, un- 
forgiven, with banishment for ever from his favour 
and presence ? Where now are those rebel angels, 
who dared to wage impious battle against the King 
of heaven ? In uncontrollable and endless tor- 
ment ! When shall the sound of release or remission 
gladden their hearts ? Never ! If it was not incon- 
sistent with the mercy of God to inflict such punish- 
ment on sinful angels, why should he not inflict it on 
sinful men ? Have angels not been as much exalted 
and blessed ? Are they not capable of as deep 
degradation and pain ? If God has pitied and 
loved with such amazing tenderness, be assured 
he will take destructive vengeance. If he has at 
any time made stupendous displays of his grace, be 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 79 

assured he will make equally stupendous exhibitions 
of his judgments. For all the actions and attributes 
of Jehovah have a grandeur commensurate with his 
divine nature. 

When these sophistical and sentimental objectors 
come into the atmosphere of the Bible, their re- 
spiration is uneasy and imperfect. The God whose 
voice is heard in every sentence, and whose image is 
reflected on every page, is not the God of their im- 
agination and affections. He is to them a strange 
God. The commonest words of the New Testament, 
holiness, righteousness, grace, inspire unconquerable 
disgust. The aspect under which they view God, 
is one adapted to divest him of every attribute which 
might excite terror. They throw an impenetrable 
veil over those exhibitions of his character, which 
render him an object of apprehension to sinners, 
and bring forward in bold relief every thing tending 
to allay alarm, and beget a profane and pernicious 
confidence. 

Now it is undeniable, that God has a controversy 
with the whole human race. Under the existing 
economy, man is born to trouble as the sparks fly 
upwards. There are terrible visitations abroad in 
the earth. Men suffer under every form of pain, 
calamity, and disease. We all come into the world 
convicts under a sentence of death. We enjoy a 
brief respite, which is continually interrupted by 
painful monitions of our mortal state. The repre- 
sentations of the word of God on this subject 



80 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

exactly accord with the actual experience of man, 
wherever found, whatever his country, climate, 
laws, government, religion, or race. Turning away 
from those who are ready to lie for God, to prophesy 
smooth things, to prophesy deceits, to the sure 
testimonies of God himself, all is perfectly intelli- 
gible ; the dispensations of his providence and the 
testimonies of his word are seen and felt to be in 
absolute harmony. In the Scriptures, the real rela- 
tions which subsist between Him who is at once the 
Father of mercies and a God of righteousness, and 
his rebellious children, shine forth in the unchang- 
ing and awful light of truth. In them, the infinite 
goodness of God is not more distinctly affirmed than 
his unspotted holiness. In them, the feelings, with 
which God once regarded man, and with which man 
once regarded God, are spoken of as having under- 
gone a corresponding change, and given place to 
others of mutual estrangement. 

There are in every climate, in every object, 
traces of the severity and the goodness, the wrath 
and the kindness of God. The contradiction of mute, 
material nature, is just what we might expect it to 
be, under the righteous government of the God of 
revelation. The double aspect of earthly things 
caused the ancient Gnostics and Manichaeans to 
feign two Gods, a supreme and a subordinate, a 
benevolent and a malignant deity ; and modern scep- 
tics have been often driven to atheism by the appa- 
rent uncertainty, confusion, and disorder, which we 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 81 

find in the world of nature. The same ray of 
sunlight, which ripens the growing grain, darts 
contagious fire — pours raging fever into the blood 
of the husbandman, who fondly hoped to enjoy the 
mature fruits of his labours. There is the deadly 
hemlock growing beside the healing balm ; now T the 
desolating torrent, and now the fragrant and gentle 
shower ; the tremendous concussions of nature, and 
the soft landscape sleeping in the moonlight, and 
bathed in the dew. There is here the festive 
gathering, but it crosses the slow-moving funeral 
train. In one house, there is a gay wedding, and 
in the next street, a mother with heart- wrung anguish 
is bending over the couch of her pale, unconscious, 
dying child. Again, there is the voice of infant 
mirth, ringing out clear and glad, and the old man 
sobbing in desolate agony, and looking to the grave 
as his only friend. 

The influences which tend to steep men in spir- 
itual slumber, derive much of their power from their 
speciousness and subtlety. They are connected with 
a partial view of the character and providence of God. 
They come dressed in the fascinating garb of sentiment 
and poetry. There is so much of truth mingled 
with them, and they apparently render such willing 
and splendid homage to the goodness of our hea- 
venly Father, and present him to the imagination 
in an attitude so winning, that to oppose the error 
seems almost impious. And yet the error is only 
the more mischievous because it is thus disguised. 



82 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

We shall never truly honour God by exalting one 
attribute at the expense of another, or by the con- 
templation of one to the exclusion of another. 
Truth, in all things, and especially in regard to 
God, will be found ultimately to be not only the 
safest, but the most truly beautiful. There are 
stern and solemn facts daily taking place before 
our eyes, which should arouse us from these illusive 
dreams. There are scenes of wretchedness around 
us, which we can no more explain than we can deny, 
except on the concession that God is not made up 
of benevolence, unaccompanied by attributes of a 
more severe kind. What means that bed of straw 
on which the pallid sufferer has been lying for 
years, with pain which time has only increased ? 
When by these means, the person is brought to piety 
and to heaven, or receives any material moral benefit, 
we can understand it ; and the advantage is greatly 
on the side of the sufferer. The physic, though 
bitter, has wrought a cure. The road, though 
rough, has led to the much loved home. The voyage, 
though stormy, has ended in the desired haven. This 
consideration should sustain God's afflicted children. 
"No suffering for the present seemeth to be joyous, 
but grievous ; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth 
the peaceable fruits of righteousness in them which 
are exercised thereby." But is this the case with 
all? Are there none who suffer severely at the 
hand of God, and who suffer without profit, without 
repentance, and without contrition ? It cannot be 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 83 

doubted that there are such persons. This is a 
painful case to contemplate. But it is necessary to 
a view of the whole truth, and it may prove more 
useful than a more pleasing train of observation. 
It proves that punishment is not always disciplinary, 
even in this world ; that there are cases, in which 
it is evidently and only retributive. This we are 
assured by inspiration is the essential nature and 
proper end of future punishment. It is for the 
vindication of God's justice, not to illustrate his 
benevolence. 

There are those who flatly deny all this, who 
represent God as sustaining exclusively a paternal 
character toward men ; and who thus quell the 
rising fears of their own consciences, and the salu- 
tary apprehensions of others. Now for the effectual 
conviction of such men, and to dispel the perilous 
error in which they are involved — it is necessary to 
pass in review a class of facts, which it is very 
painful to consider. We are compelled to contem- 
plate God, not only as he sits enthroned in smiling 
goodness over his glad and grateful creatures ; 
opening his hand and satisfying the desire of every 
living thing, and therefore, an object of trust and of 
tenderness; but likewise as making his power known 
by present demonstrations of destroying vengeance 
against the workers of iniquity ; and therefore, a 
God not only to be loved but to be feared. He 
has not only denounced for the future, but inflicted 
before our eyes, indignation and wrath, tribulation 



84 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil. 
" Upon the wicked, he shall rain snares, fire and brim- 
stone, and a horrible tempest ; this shall be the 
portion of their cup." Ps. xi. 6. Ought not men 
to consider the solemn facts and calls of God's 
providence ? Ought they not to fear him ? Are not 
the most terrible denunciations of what he will do 
in eternity, of the intolerable weight of his wrath 
which shall finally break forth and bear down and 
burn to the lowest hell — borne out by the plain 
proofs of his consuming indignation against the 
children of disobedience, which he has afforded, 
even in this world ? But the uncompromising and 
inviolable sacredness of the law, which these pre- 
sumptuous despisers spurn, is seen, most of all, 
in the gracious method by which the voice which 
cried for the blood of the sinner is silenced by the 
blood of the Saviour. The character of Jehovah 
must be inflexible in its righteousness, when his 
well-beloved Son must drain to the dregs the bitter 
cup of anguish, simply because he stood in the sin- 
ner's place and sustained what infinite justice 
adjudged to the sinner's substitute. The ground 
of carnal security is a false view of the moral char- 
acter and the moral government of God. Men 
could not remain careless in their sins, if they 
seriously believed and thought upon the truth. It 
is not in the nature of things. It is not in the na- 
ture of man. 

Let us now proceed to point out the moral use 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 85 

and bearing of this argument. An objector may 
affirm that these views of God — of the objects, the 
means, and the ends of his moral government, are 
derogatory to his benevolence. The reply is obvi- 
ous : explain them as you can ; deny them if you 
will ; still they are experimentally true. We can- 
not be more satisfied of our own existence, than of 
these facts and principles of the divine administra- 
tion. But we take higher ground. They are not 
only true, but they are honourable to God. Those 
who deny or asperse them, degrade while they pre- 
tend to exalt him. While they profess to be con- 
tending for the honour of his name, they rob him 
of his most sacred and shining glories. These pains, 
proceeding as they do from the presence of sin, 
proclaim more loudly than a voice from heaven his 
holy abhorrence of sin. By these dreadful terrors 
and solemn sanctions is the unspotted righteousness 
of his eternal throne vindicated. They are not 
only designed to impress the mind with salutary 
awe — to instruct us in regard to the insufferable 
odiousness of sin, and so to deter us and others from 
the commission of it, and allure us onward to holi- 
ness and heaven — they have an additional and a more 
awful purpose in view. We can have nothing like 
an adequate apprehension of the terrors of the 
Almighty, and conscience is disarmed of her most 
dreaded sting, while we yield ourselves to the ima- 
gination so assiduously cherished by a superficial 
and sentimental theology, that the only design of 



88 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

punishment is disciplinary; that in all cases in which 
pain is endured, the purpose is either to reform the 
sufferer, or to warn others. There is, under the 
government of God, a retributive justice which 
marks its power and makes its presence known, in 
the sufferings of the guilty, not only in this world, 
but in that which is to come. 

The view presented throws a painful but a power- 
ful light on the doctrine of human depravity. It 
shows that it is no pedantic dogma about which 
bigotted theologians may wrangle, with the consi- 
deration of which men of sense and candour have 
nothing to do. It shows that as this appalling 
corruption is present in the experience of every 
man, so it is a fact, which has materially affected 
every man's relations towards God. So that, if it be 
ignored, no great question in morals can be under- 
stood or settled aright. So interwoven is it with 
our recollections, our experience, and our prospects ; 
so essentially does it modify the feelings, with which 
we are regarded, and the principles on which we 
are treated, on the part of God, that it is a material 
element in the solution of every problem, which 
respects the relations of the creature to the Creator. 
Why this extensive suffering in the universe of 
God ? Why pain, sickness, death ? Because of sin. 
The existence of sin is an ultimate fact. When we 
have pushed our inquiries to this point we must stop 
short. Beyond this, revelation is silent, and reason 
and experience cannot pass. To those who deny 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 87 

either the righteousness of God or the sinfulness 
of men, and the binding link between them, the 
actual experience of the human race must be an in- 
explicable enigma. 

There is nothing which the Bible discloses, in 
relation to the condition of man in a future world, 
which we do not behold in principle, in seed, and in 
germ, in our present economy. The government 
now carried on is not the perfection of moral gov- 
ernment ; but still it is truly moral. There is the 
native impression on every unsophisticated mind, 
that vice deserves to be punished, not simply for 
the good of the offender or for the benefit of others, 
but simply because it is vice. God has himself dis- 
tinctly announced this fact, in our present constitu- 
tion, in the uneasiness or pleasure which arises in 
the mind, according as we have done what we 
regard as a good or a bad action. Thus we have 
the fact of moral rewards and punishments, estab- 
lished in the most immediate and intimate manner. 
Could we receive the infallible assurance, that no 
human being would ever be injured by what we 
had done amiss, and did we know that there was 
no possibility of its repetition by ourselves ; still if 
we distinctly recognized it as wrong, we should 
quite as distinctly recognize it as worthy of punish- 
ment; and the pungency and the power of this 
conviction, would be in precise proportion to the 
moral sensibility and purity of the offender. The 
man whose moral feelings and whose moral judg- 



88 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

merits were most like God's, would have the most 
oppressive sense of guilt, if consciously a sinner. 

These are plain traces of a righteous government, 
whence it is easy to answer all objections, since they 
proceed from, and imply a righteous Governor. It 
is the highest evidence that God approves righteous- 
ness and abhors sin, that he has made his vicegerent 
and voice in the soul, to testify with such authority 
on the side of righteousness. The conscience of the 
human race is the moral vindicator of God. He has 
inserted in the breast of every living man a princi- 
ple and a power, that bears instant witness to the 
infinite rectitude of the divine character, and the 
inviolate justice of God, in his fearful visitations 
on the lawless and disobedient. The office of con- 
science is two-fold : to guide man and testify for 
God. The profoundest interpretation of its utter- 
ances is given by the smitten and penitent psalmist 
when he says, " That thou mightest be justified 
when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. ,, 
Ps. li. 4. In the present life, men may sport them- 
selves with their own deceivings, resolutely shutting 
their eyes to the manifold traces of a righteous 
government all around them, refusing to acknowledge 
the God either of Scripture or of Providence, and 
making to themselves an imaginary being who will 
verily clear the guilty, that they may cast off all fear 
and sin, as it were with a cart-rope. But let such re- 
member that God has made ample provision, not 
only for the execution but for the vindication of his 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 89 

righteous sentence. What shall at last be spoken 
by the voice of the eternal Judge, shall be echoed 
by the conscience of the condemned. The circum- 
stance, of all others, which will render that sentence 
most fearful, is that it will be felt to be just. " And 
a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our 
God all ye his servants, and ye that fear him both 
small and great. And I heard, as it were, the voice 
of a great multitude, and as the voice of many 
waters, and as the voice of a mighty thundering, 
saying, Alleluia : for the Lord God omnipotent 
reigneth." Rev. xix. 5, 6. " I have sworn by my- 
self, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteous- 
ness, and shall not return, That unto me every 
knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear." Isa. 
xlv. 23. " Those mine enemies which would not 
that I should reign over them, bring hither and 
slay them before me." Luke xix. 27. 

It plainly appears from the unchangeable char- 
acter of God, and from the feelings with which he 
now regards sinners, that they are shut up to the 
salvation of the gospel. The appalling dispensa- 
tions of his providence, which now so expressively 
mark his purpose to punish sin, are only the pre- 
monitions of a more overwhelming perdition which 
will be the eternal portion of the finally impenitent. 
God, out of Christ, is a consuming fire. But God 
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the 
world, but that the world through him might be 

saved. The sum of the gospel testimony, is that 
8* 



90 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

" God was in Christ reconciling the world unto him- 
self ; not imputing their trespasses unto them." Let 
such therefore as think the view of the divine char- 
acter and government, presented in this chapter, 
harsh and repulsive, know that it is inseparably 
connected with our pardon, peace, and safety. We 
seek merely to drive them from a deceitful trust, 
that their feet may rest upon a solid rock. The 
same principle of immutable righteousness, which 
secures the condemnation of the impenitent, is 
pledged for the salvation of the believer in Jesus. 
Just as the man who rejects the salvation of the 
gospel, through unbelief, will be sentenced to ever- 
lasting perdition by the unchanging fiat of Jehovah, 
so the man who believes on the Son of God, " shall 
not perish but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. 
For the salvation of the believer, we have all the 
assurance that can arise from all the attributes of 
God ; from all the dispensations of providence ; from 
all the promises of the gospel, and from all the pro- 
visions of heavenly glory. Rom. viii. 28 ; John xiv. 
2. The way of access, the new and living way, has 
been opened to the favour of God, and the ripe fruits 
of that favour in the paradise above. " Having there- 
fore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by 
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which 
he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that 
is to say, his flesh ; and having a high priest over 
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, 
in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 91 

from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with 
pure water." Heb. x. 19-22. The acceptance of 
the man who relies not on his own works but on the 
grace of God ; who, casting away every other ground 
of trust, reposes on the word of God, and receives 
with humble thankfulness the great salvation ; is 
secured by the very righteousness, which adjudges 
the obstinate sinner to everlasting woe. It is like- 
wise on the same basis that the accepted believer 
may triumphantly rest for the effectual keeping of 
that which he has committed to his faithful Saviour. 
They whom the Father hath given to Christ, in 
eternity, and who, constrained by his grace, have 
given themselves to him in time, are kept by the 
power of God, through faith unto salvation. The 
righteousness of God, which is the ground of just 
dread to the man who persists in his sins, is the 
refuge and bulwark of the man who has fled for 
refuge to the hope set before him. 

Religious reverence makes up a large part of 
intelligent and acceptable piety. God is the object 
of humble adoration to the heavenly hosts. How 
much more lowly the homage, due the Majesty on 
high, from guilty creatures, such as we ! Wherever 
God has revealed himself to men, he has surrounded 
himself with circumstances of majesty and terror, 
clouds and darkness, lightnings and thunderings. 
Thus he appeared to Moses and Isaiah ; to Ezekiel 
and to Daniel ; to Paul and to John ; and thus he 



92 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

will appear to every eye, in the awful Epiphany of 
the last day ! 

The Apostle draws a distinction, however, to which 
it becomes us to give heed. It is that which obtains 
between a reverential and a servile fear. The one 
is the feeling of an affectionate son for an honoured 
father. The other, that of a sullen slave for an 
abhorred and dreaded lord. The right faith and the 
right fear draw men near to God in holy fellow- 
ship and in willing service. They make men fear- 
ful of committing sin, which is that evil and bitter 
thing that God hates. They render his favour 
which is life, and his loving-kindness which is better 
than life, the object of supreme desire and delight. 
This is that fear of the Lord, which makes men 
depart from ^ vil. It is that fear of the Lord which 
is the beginning of wisdom ; and which, so far from 
being lessened, is increased with growth in know- 
ledge and grace. A servile and sinful fear, on the 
other hand, is founded on the conviction of guilt, 
and the absence of faith in the mercy of God and in 
the merit of Christ, our most gracious Mediator 
and Advocate. Its effect is to fill the soul with 
hostility and bitterness, and render the thought 
of drawing near to God intolerable. It is the 
feeling which sprang up in the remorseful soul 
of apostate Adam, and is displaced by a delightful 
confidence, when the painful sense of guilt has been 
exchanged for a heartfelt trust in the grace of Im- 
manuel ! A oervile and sinful dread is the perennial 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 93 

source of all will-worship and superstition. A godly 
and filial reverence is the fountain whence issue 
the streams which make glad the city of our God, 
free and joyful worship, grateful and holy obedience. 
The one is the spirit of popery ; the other, the spirit 
of the true gospel church. 



94 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 



LECTURE V. 

RELATION OE REASON TO REVELATION. 

In the revealed word there is, as it were, a re- 
appearing of the original Paradise of God; in which 
there is the greatest abundance of trees, good for 
food and fair to look upon, of which we may freely 
eat ; and others kept in sacred seclusion — " a privacy 
of glorious light" — a religious reserve not to be 
violated without sin and death. 

There are certain disclosures of revelation, which 
belong to us just as truly as the permitted trees of 
the garden belonged to Adam ; truths as beautiful, 
as grand, as precious, as the immortal fruits and 
flowers that shed fragrance and beauty and endless 
riches there: 

Groves of myrrh, 
And flowering odours, cassia, nard, and balm, 
A wilderness of sweets. 

In the Bible are revelations touching the nature, 
the purposes, and the empire of God; setting forth 
the origin, the fall, and the redemption of man — the 
creation, the government, and the destiny of this 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 95 

material Universe, to all of which we have as free 
access as Adam had to any of the trees of Eden. 
While there are truths relating to all these matters, 
but more immediately pertaining to the nature and 
purposes of God, as inaccessible, as veiled in the un- 
fathomable mysteries of his providence, as were 
any of the trees of the garden, to which we have no 
more right to draw near than Adam had to taste of 
the tree of the knowledge of good or evil — or the 
people of Bethshemesh to gaze with profane eyes 
into the Ark of God — or any other than the high 
priest among the Hebrews to enter in and examine 
the awful arcana of the Holy of Holies. 

There is this difference, however, that Adam was 
at liberty to eat or not to eat of the permitted fruits. 
We have no such liberty. We are positively re- 
quired, on pain of the sore displeasure of Almighty 
God, to search diligently into the things that are 
revealed. I hardly know which is the greater sin, 
to pry into the unrevealed or to slight the revealed 
mind of God. Certain it is, that the things which 
are revealed are not only our property but our pro- 
vince. It is not only our right but our duty to 
know and do all the revealed will of God. On the 
same authority, and to the same degree, we are bound 
not to be wise above what is written ; and to be sure 
that we are wise up to what is written. The revela- 
tion of God is to be the measure of our knowledge and 
faith. In the whole compass of the Bible, there is 
not one revealed truth of which we may remain in- 



96 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

nocently or safely ignorant. There is no folly into 
which men fall, or sin that they commit, against which 
they are not guarded in Scripture; and which they 
might not have escaped, had they given intelligent 
heed to the sure testimonies of God. "Thy word," 
says David, " have I hid in my heart, that I might not 
sin against thee." " Wherewith shall a young man 
cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to 
thy word." "All Scripture is given by inspiration 
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction in righteousness." 
Ps. cxix. 11, 9; 2 Tim. iii. 16. No portion of the 
Scripture can be safely overlooked or underrated. 
All is needful. All is useful. Every part is in- 
spired, and the whole binding on the conscience. 

If there be one truth revealed in the Bible, and 
that truth be one of which we remain in willing 
ignorance — that one truth may belong to the law 
or the gospel — it may set in array the terrors of 
the Almighty, or it may be full of grace — and yet, 
contrary to its own nature and proper tendency, it 
may become to us the occasion of death ; first, by 
way of privation and absence. It may be the very 
truth that we need for correction, for consolation, 
for reproof, or for instruction in righteousness. Or 
secondly, by way of direct and positive operation. 
It may be a word of grace, but that word is turned 
against us, and becomes to us a word of death, like 
the sword which is madly directed against the 
bosom it should have defended. The truths of 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 97 

God's word are like the pillar of cloud that went 
before ancient Israel ; they have a bright side and a 
dark ; they are a light and defence to his friends ; 
obscurity and terror to his foes. 

Lord Bacon says, " The prerogative of God extend- 
eth as well to the reason as to the will of man ; so 
that as we are to obey his law, though we find a 
reluctation in our will, so we are to believe his 
word, though we find a reluctation in our reason." 
There is hardly any subject of inquiry more diffi- 
cult and important, than the true limits and use of 
reason in spiritual things. It is the office of reason 
to weigh the evidence of what purports to be a reve- 
lation from God ; and we cannot be too cautious or 
too exact in our examination of what claims to be 
of supernatural origin and of binding authority. 
But when once adequately attested, all that remains 
to reason, the proper and the only function of rea- 
son, is not to determine beforehand, what such reve- 
lation can consistently unfold, but simply to ascertain 
with all available helps and, above all, with humble 
prayer to the eternal Spirit, what it actually dis- 
closes. 

It is no business of ours to reconcile the several 
doctrines of the Bible with one another. There is, 
no doubt, an interior, though it may be, for the 
present, an invisible harmony between them ; and 
hereafter, doubtless, all apparent discrepancies will 
be resolved into a higher unity. We are not bound 
to evince the logical consistency, for instance, 



98 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

between divine sovereignty and human responsi- 
bility, the election of God and the free agency of 
man. The one is assumed, the other affirmed 
throughout the Scriptures. The one is necessary 
to the constitution of man, the other to the authority 
of God. The one is an intimate and universal fact 
of consciousness, the other is an essential and inalien- 
able prerogative of God. Without the one, we cease to 
be men ; without the other, he ceases to be God. With- 
out the one, we should not be capable of salvation ; 
without the other, there could be no salvation for us. 
In a word, every man feels that he is responsible to 
God for what he is, and dependent upon God for what 
he should be. So true is that saying of Augustine, 
" Command what thou wilt, and give what thou dost 
command." 

It is the height of folly for men to torment them- 
selves about the secret decrees of the Most High. 
They never can know them. They never were 
designed to be known but by the event, or the plain 
prognostic of the event. The eternal election or 
reprobation of particular persons, belongs to this 
class of truths. Many assume, always without 
authority, and often most erroneously, that they 
are non-elect, that God never designed to save them, 
that if he did, he will save them without any anxiety 
or exertion on their part ; and therefore, they fold 
their hands in total apathy, awaiting some extraor- 
dinary visitation of the Holy Ghost, without offering 
that prayer which is at once a proof of his presence 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 99 

and a pledge of his favour. Now what may be the 
secret purpose of God in regard to any particular 
individual, is wholly unknown to himself or to any 
other human being : and of course, it should not, 
in reason, be the motive or the rule of his personal 
action. If secret, if unrevealed, it is that with 
which we can have no direct concern. It is not an 
element of responsibility or a rule of action to us. 
But "the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth 
and in thy heart : that is, the word of faith which 
we preach : That if thou shalt confess with thy 
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine 
heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, 
thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man be- 
lieveth unto righteousness, and with the mouth con- 
fession is made unto salvation. " Rom. x. 8 — 10. 

How unreasonable and sinful is it, then, for men 
to be perplexing themselves about the secret decrees 
of God, and the ultimate issue of things, when the 
way of salvation is so plainly pointed out in the 
Scriptures, when the only condition exacted is a 
sense of need and a free acceptance of everlasting 
life ! Any man, who is willing to be saved on these 
terms, God, for Christ's sake, is willing to save ! 
and he is willing to save no man on any other 
terms. This is positively all that is revealed con- 
cerning the purpose of God toward any. He does 
not say of any particular sinner, that he is elect or 
non-elect. He says of some, " Ye will not come 
unto me that ye might have life. ,, He says to all, 



100 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

" Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy- 
laden and I will.give you rest." "And if any man 
thirst, let him come unto me and drink.' ' 

The secret things of God are a stumbling-block, 
over which many souls fall into perdition. It may 
be that some of my young readers may be u throwing 
their inch of time away," in endless and profitless 
endeavour to find out what is not revealed, and what 
can be known only from the event, or from those 
spiritual fruits, which are the effects of grace, and 
therefore the presages of glory. The most favoured 
and mature Christian can know his gracious election 
of God only by inference. There is no private and 
special revelation to any of his eternal designation 
in the purpose of God to have a part in the glorious 
inheritance of the saints in light. Even the Apostles 
when upon the earth were saved by hope ; that is, 
their salvation in its complete consummation was 
prospective, not present; a matter of anticipation, 
not a matter of experience. The true and the right 
process is this. We rise from the consciousness of 
love to God to the conclusion that he loves us — for 
we know from the Scripture that if we love him, it 
is only because he first loved us. We are sensible 
of being the subjects of holy dispositions, sympathies, 
desires; and we know that all who are the subjects 
of such affections, and who bring forth such fruits, 
are ordained unto eternal life. Hence the exquisite 
beauty and fitness of Archbishop Leighton's com- 
parison of the decree of election to a golden chain 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 101 

let down from heaven to earth: the centre link, 
holiness, being within the sight of men, and the two 
extremes, eternal election and eternal glory, reserved 
in the keeping of God. 

The Lord has revealed his will so far as it is 
needful for us to know it, but he has disclosed 
nothing for the gratification of mere curiosity or 
carnal speculation. We should be concerned there- 
fore to explore the counsels of the Most High only 
so far as he has been pleased to make them known. 
He has inculcated modesty upon us, in all our re- 
ligious inquiries, by making it the indispensable 
condition of true knowledge, as well as in the 
method and measure of his gracious communica- 
tions. 

Profound and insoluble difficulties present them- 
selves in the infancy of thought, and in every sub- 
sequent stage of our intellectual progress. They 
startle the child as well as the man ; the savage as 
well as the philosopher; and their satisfactory 
solution is as effectually hidden from one as from 
the other. 

Thus to take the fundamental difficulty of all — 
the existence anywhere in the universe of God, of 
any sort of evil moral or physical, for any period 
extended or brief. This is a difficulty by no means 
peculiar to the Christian Scriptures or to the Chris- 
tian system, but pertaining as well to every other 
scheme of religion and philosophy. The existence 
of evil is a fact that confronts the Atheist as pal- 
9* 



102 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

pably and broadly as it does the Bible believer. It 
is a fact which is simply recognized as a fact 
under every dispensation. It is not accounted for, 
not vindicated ; but assumed or asserted in every 
part of Scripture. Still the specific and perfect 
method by which it is to be reconciled with the at- 
tributes of God, is nowhere intimated — the reasons 
which determined a Being of infinite wisdom, power, 
and goodness to permit it, are not even glanced at — a 
profound darkness envelopes the whole subject; and 
every attempt which men have made to dissipate the 
darkness has served only to make it more palpably 
obscure. 

As a matter of fact, the associated doctrines of 
original sin and total depravity are painfully at- 
tested by the universal history of our race. How 
different would the present aspect of the world be, 
if, from the beginning of time until now, men had 
employed the thought, the money, and the effort in 
advancing the physical and intellectual well-being 
of one another, their progress in knowledge, virtue, 
and happiness, which they have expended in mutual 
slaughter, persecution, and ruin ! The greatest of 
all mysteries calls for the exercise of the greatest 
faith, and so of all lesser mysteries in their degree. 
We are divinely assured that the whole scheme of 
things was not suddenly improvised on an unex- 
pected emergency; but foreseen and foreordained 
from all eternity, for the highest conceivable end, 
the most illustrious display of the divine perfections. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 103 

It is expressly affirmed that it is his sublime pre- 
rogative to bring good out of evil ; and in the events 
connected with our Redeemer's advent, life, and 
death, in their remote relations and revealed results, 
we have the clearest demonstration of this cheering 
truth. 

It has been an occasion of astonishment, and per- 
haps of infidelity to some, that God should have 
visited sin, under the old dispensation, with such 
destructive judgments ; as in the case of Sodom, 
of Korah, of Achan, and others. The true solution, 
undoubtedly, is that at that time the doctrines of a 
future state and eternal punishment were obscurely 
revealed; and the most appalling instance of his 
wrath against sin had not then been exhibited in 
the unparalleled sufferings of his beloved Son. The 
Mosaic Dispensation was especially designed to 
illustrate the holiness of God : the Christian, his 
grace. 

If sin be a greater evil than pain, as every one 
not utterly debased will admit, then the pains of 
life consequent on sin, and designed to punish and 
prevent it, so far from being in conflict with the 
wisdom and goodness of God, are a strong confir- 
mation of both. That there should be suffering in 
this life, therefore, admitting the existence of sin, 
presents no mystery to reason, and should create no 
difficulty or surprise ; but should be considered in- 
evitable, under the government of God, and on the 
hypothesis of sin. Suffering is the frown of God 



104 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

on sin. It is as natural, considering who God is, 
and what sin is, as the darkening of the day when 
the beautiful sunlight is obscured by an intervening 
cloud, or as the face of a wise and loving father is 
shaded with displeasure at the presence or mention 
of an un dutiful son. The most signal mark of God's 
favour indeed is the making its object holy, though 
by a painful process. How could a human friend 
show such friendship as by seeking to lead us to 
holiness, though by a rough and thorny path ; and 
how could God show his larger love more wisely 
than by effecting the same gracious end, though by 
piercing sorrows ? The advanced Christian will 
value the gifts of God's grace above those of his 
providence, and will therefore take joyfully the 
spoiling of his goods, the loss of his health, or the 
death of his friends, if it yield the peaceable fruits 
of righteousness to himself or others. 

The sufferings of infants and saints are mysterious ; 
but what if we had seen the Son of God taunted, 
buffeted, expiring on the cross ! Let the believer 
then think of the sorrows of his Lord, when his 
own seem mysterious. Let him ponder the death 
of his Saviour, when his own death seems dreadful. 
There is profound wisdom in the saying of John 
Howe, that no secrets of nature can outvie the 
mysteries of godliness. 

The reason why particular events in time have 
occurred at one period rather than another, is in 
many cases unsearchable by the human understand- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 105 

ing. It is one of God's secrets. It is locked up by 
the King of kings in his cabinet councils ; not 
offered to the gaze of created intelligences. Dr. 
Arnold, a wise observer of the ways of providence 
as revealed in the history of nations, remarks in his 
Lectures on Modern History : " No man can say why 
the great discoveries of science were made only 
at the time and in the country when and where they 
were made actually : why the compass was with- 
held from the navigation of the Roman empire, but 
was already in existence, when it was needed to aid 
the genius of Columbus : why printing was in- 
vented in time to preserve that portion of Greek 
literature which still survived in the fifteenth 
century, but was not known early enough to prevent 
the irreparable mischiefs of the Latin storming of 
Constantinople in the thirteenth : why the steam 
engine, triumphing over time and space, was denied 
to the striving spirit of the sixteenth century, and 
reserved to display its wonderful works only to the 
nineteenth." 

These are only a few samples of innumerable 
questions of the same general character, which may 
be asked, but which cannot be satisfactorily an- 
swered. "What I do," says Christ to Peter, 
" thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know here- 
after." All the dispensations of God toward na- 
tions, families, and individuals, which are not inter- 
preted in the event, will be intelligible in eternity. 
No cloud will ultimately rest on the character of 



106 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 



God, as Ruler and Judge. The set time for the 
full vindication of his ways, is the judgment of the 
great day. Then, doubtless, all seeming incongrui- 
ties will be reconciled ; all obscurities cleared up ; 
and the sun of his righteousness shine forth with 
unclouded ray. Then, satisfied, thankful, joyful, 
all his saints shall sing the song of Moses and the 
Lamb, saying, " Great and marvellous are thy 
words, Lord God Almighty ; just and true are thy 
ways, thou king of saints !" Rev. xv. 3, 4. 

As in the ancient dispensation, before the coming 
of Christ, many types and usages might have seemed 
unmeaning and even absurd, which are now clear 
and significant ; so in the future world many things 
may be seen to be wise and righteous in the economy 
of God, which at present we cannot understand. 
We must be content, therefore, to walk by faith, 
not by sight. Faith in God is the great cure alike 
for the maladies of human nature, and the infirmi- 
ties of human reason. The predominance of sense 
is one of the most comprehensive evils of the fall. 
Faith is opposed to sense and not to reason ; so far 
as it prevails it subdues the one and exalts the 
other, cheering the desponding soul by the promised 
rewards of the celestial paradise. Faith in the full 
disclosures of eternity, in regard to the profound 
mysteries which prevail in the two grand depart- 
ments of providence and grace, should inspire 
patience. Now we are in darkness ; but then we 
shall know, even as we are known. Now our dis- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 107 

coveries of truth are slow, circuitous, obscure, and 
partial; then they will be rapid, intuitive, clear, 
and perfect. 

Human reason can no more comprehend the 
whole compass of divine revelation, than the human 
eye can take in, at a glance, the whole material 
universe. Therefore, let us cease from man whose 
breath is in his nostrils, even the wisest, the greatest, 
and the best, and let us look to God as our infallible 
Teacher and sovereign Lord. 

It is not surprising that men should find difficul- 
ties in Scripture, who, in addition to the ordinary 
infirmities of human reason, read it in a spirit so 
different from that in which it was written by the 
holy men of old. Having nothing in their own 
spiritual experience to correspond with its sacred 
truths, and no proper sympathy with them, they 
can have no true knowledge, no adequate apprecia- 
tion of them. To enjoy the beauties of nature, of 
literature, and of art, requires delicate sensibility, 
and a cultivated taste. How much more to discern 
and delight in the spiritual splendors which light 
up the firmament of inspired Scripture ! 1 Cor. ii. 
14. It is true not only of individuals, but of whole 
generations, that when frivolous, heartless, sensual, 
and blood-thirsty, they have been invariably scep- 
tical in regard to divine revelation, and prone to 
reject it. 

It belongs to the sovereignty of God to deter- 
mine first, whether he shall give to us a supernatural 



108 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

revelation of his will at all ; secondly, what the reve- 
lation shall unfold, and what it shall conceal ; what 
portion of the spiritual horizon it shall illuminate, 
and what it shall leave in partial or in total dark- 
ness. In other words, the fact, the matter, the 
measure, and the methods of divine revelation, all 
pertain alike and alone to the sovereignty of God, 
who at one time hideth himself in the majesty of 
darkness, and at another covereth himself with 
light, as with a garment — of whom, at one time, it 
is said, his pavilion round about him was dark 
w T aters and thick clouds of the sky ; and at another, 
that he dwelleth in light inaccessible and full of 
glory. 

There are those who acknowledge the fact of a 
supernatural revelation, and yet determine before- 
hand what it must, what it shall contain. They 
come to the Bible, with a complete system of theo- 
logy, morals, and even church government, elabor- 
ated in their own minds, not loosely sketched, but 
finished and rounded. The conclusion on all these 
grave subjects is fully resolved on, before the au- 
thoritative record is consulted. They then, with 
pertinacious diligence, hunt out whatever may be 
made to sustain their foregone conclusion ; and with 
perverted ingenuity, distort or reject every thing 
against it. We can hardly say whether greater 
violence is done to human reason or to divine reve- 
lation, by such a procedure. An acknowledged 
revelation from God must partake of the supremacy 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 109 

which pertains to its author. What is the meaning, 
where is the use of a revelation, which is not to be 
above but below the authority accorded to the human 
mind? What intolerable arrogance in man to pre- 
sume to sit in judgment on an accredited revelation 
from God, not to ascertain, but to determine its 
meaning ! What a monstrous abuse of human 
reason ! What an audacious affront to the divine 
majesty ! 

The design of God in revelation can be known 
infallibly and only from what the Scriptures actu- 
ally contain. What then, in brief, do they princi- 
pally teach ? They teach explicitly and authorita- 
tively, what man is to believe concerning God, and 
what duty God requires of man. The result of 
all speculative wisdom, the sum of all practical reli- 
gion — in a word, the whole duty of man, is to fear 
God and keep his commandments. Correct appre- 
hensions of the nature, the authority, and the con- 
tents of divine revelation, lie at the foundation of 
the piety which God approves ; for the piety which 
God approves consists in right views of God, in 
right affections towards him, and in a correspondent 
course of action. 

It is a remarkable fact, that the bitterest contro- 
versies, which have vexed the church of God, have 
turned upon matters, indeterminate, uncertain, and 
incapable of scriptural adjustment. There the 
Bible stands, immutably, inflexibly one, and the 

same amid the wars and changes of human opinion ; 
10 



110 THE TRUE PATH, OK THE 

meanwhile, the fashions of this world passing away, 
revolutions perpetually taking place in systems of 
human philosophy, in theories touching the origin 
and destiny of man, in speculations concerning the 
origin and destiny of the earth which he inhabits ; 
controversies in relation to the constitution, the 
character and the inhabitants of other, and often 
very distant bodies of the material universe, Geology, 
Astronomy, Metaphysics, Morals, Politics, all the 
waves of pedant pride and popular tumult, rising, 
raging, breaking against this our spiritual Gibraltar 
harmlessly ; then retiring, their fury spent, to be 
succeeded by other systems of speculation, alike 
aggressive and alike impotent. 

Unchangeableness, which is so essential an attri- 
bute of the Father of lights, is one of the most 
marked characters of that marvellous book, which 
unfolds to man His eternal counsels. Schools of 
philosophy, systems of science, methods of inter- 
pretation, spring up ; live through their appointed 
day ; die, and are heard of no more. But the Bible, 
although often misinterpreted, distrusted, corrupted, 
and opposed, is self-consistent, indestructible, and 
invariably triumphant. It is a thing well-worthy 
of being pondered, that those very sciences, which 
in their infancy seemed irreconcilably at variance 
with this blessed book, in their maturity have 
borne witness to the more than mortal wisdom of the 
holy men, who were moved to write it, and as will- 
ing captives have joined themselves to its chariot- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. Ill 

wheels to swell its triumphs and to sound its praise ! 
It becomes the friends of God then to honour his 
holy word by a calm, unfaltering trust ; neither 
torturing its language into a forced conformity with 
the supposed testimony of infant sciences, nor re- 
jecting the clear demonstrations of science, from 
the foolish fear that they will be found to clash 
with the recorded revelations of God. 

No one need dread, lest the testimony of the 
rocks or of the stars, when read aright, should be at 
variance with the testimony of the Bible, rightly 
interpreted. " Hath the rain a father ? or who hath 
begotten the drops of dew ? Out of whose womb 
came the ice ? and the hoary frost of heaven who 
hath gendered it ? Canst thou bind the sweet influ- 
ences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion ? 
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season ? 
or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons ? Know- 
est thou the ordinances of heaven ? Canst thou set 
the dominion thereof in the earth ?" Job xxxviii. 
28—33. 

What would now remain of the primitive revela- 
tion of God, if it had been adjusted to every change 
in science, to every phase in philosophy, to every 
transient doctrine in morals, to every imaginary 
improvement of the times — if it had been left in the 
hands of men to be twisted, dropped, squared, 
stretched, according to their will ? Not a shred ! 
not a fragment ! It is likewise a truth, well wor- 
thy of remark, that some of the bitterest controver- 



112 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

sies have turned not upon the fact, or the necessity, 
or the result of God's supernatural operation, but 
upon the mode of the divine working. Now it is 
highly important to bear in mind, that the latter 
strictly belongs to Him, of which it may be we can 
have no knowledge, while the former may be of the 
number of our most sacred beliefs and duties. Thus 
in regard both to the material and to the spiritual 
creations. I may be wholly ignorant or incurious 
concerning the method of the creation, the worker in 
the process, and even in the period employed in 
calling into existence, and arranging in their rela- 
tive forms and orders, the various tribes and species 
of his diversified creation, from the lowest to the 
highest. I may believe with Dr. Chalmers, that an 
indefinite period intervened between the original 
act of creation referred to in the first two and a 
half verses of Genesis, and the cosmical arrange- 
ment detailed in the succeeding verses of the first 
and second chapters. I may believe with Dr. Pye 
Smith, that the chaos of darkness and confusion 
was of limited extent* I may hold with Hugh 
Miller, that the days of Genesis first, were not 
natural days, as Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Pye Smith 
believed, but vast periods of indefinite duration ; or I 
may never have thought or heard of the matter at 
all ; and all or either, in perfect consistency with 
the deepest reverence for the Scriptures, as divinely 
inspired and divinely binding alike on faith and 
reason. For each of these illustrious men believed 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 113 

as fully in the divine origin and authority of the 
Mosaic record, as the simplest Christian in all the 
world. There are many things in regard to the 
mode of the creation, in respect to which intelligent 
believers may innocently differ; but in regard to 
the fact, there can be no difference of sentiment, 
because he who denies it, not only ceases to be, in 
any sense, a Christian, but proclaims himself an 
Atheist. 

So in regard to the new creation of the soul in 
the spiritual image of its Maker. There are many 
things in relation to the work of the Spirit, in en- 
lightening, attracting, subduing, sanctifying, and 
comforting the believer, which we cannot explain. 
But the fact, that rational and credible persons have 
been the conscious subjects of such a supernatural 
change, we can no more doubt than we can doubt 
our own existence. It is not only affirmed by in- 
numerable and most trust-worthy persons of them- 
selves as the conscious subjects of a spiritual reno- 
vation, in their desires, purposes, tendencies, hopes, 
and fears, but it is the promise of God to as many as 
should receive his Son, that they should have power 
to become the sons of God ; " which were born not of 
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man but of God." Still, while the fact is clearly 
affirmed both of God and man, the mode of the 
Spirit's operation is confessed of one and author- 
itatively declared of the other, to be obscure and 
inscrutable. While the one gives, as the sum of his 
10* 



114 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

witness, this testimony, "I know that whereas I 
was blind, now I see;" the other says, " The wind 
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and 
whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the 
Spirit." John iii. 8. "For what man knoweth the 
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in 
him ? Even so the things of God knoweth no man 
but the Spirit of God. For who hath known the 
mind of the Lord, that he might instruct him ?" 1 
Cor. ii. 11-16. 

The obvious design of God, in giving us a super- 
natural revelation, was to furnish certain intelligence 
on the most important truths. Those matters 
therefore, which it is most essential that we should 
know, are most clearly revealed. 

The primal duties shine aloft like stars; 

The charities that soothe and heal and bless 

Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers ; 

The generous inclination, the just rule, 

Kind wishes and good actions and pure thoughts : 

No mystery is here. 

If a man were giving a chart to his fellowman, 
travelling for the first time through an unknown 
country, he would naturally set down, most plainly, 
the largest objects, the highest mountains, the 
principal rivers, the widest expanse of lake and 
moor : and if any two intelligent persons should 
examine such a chart together, and a dispute arise 
concerning the way-marks, we might expect it to 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 115 

turn upon the less considerable objects, which had 
been wholly overlooked or obscurely indicated. 
Now the Bible is an inspired chart of the way of 
life : and shall God be reckoned less wise or less 
compassionate in its construction, than a man would 
be ? They who hold the grand and cardinal doc- 
trines of the Christian revelation, and whose lives 
accord with them, have the same precious inherit- 
ance ; and should rejoice together as equally par- 
takers of the common salvation. There ought then 
to be no fierce controversies among men, who agree 
in holding what both concede to be fundamental 
truth. 

It is a nearly related consideration and of the 
same peace-making tendency, that the further we 
recede from the obvious teachings of Scripture by 
rational deduction, the more uncertain our con- 
clusion, and the less likely to commend itself to the 
reason and conscience of another. Many men con- 
tend for the dark and doubtful inferences from a 
long and intricate chain of reasoning, with not less 
vehemence, than for the first principles of the doc- 
trine of Christ; and represent them as not less 
binding on the faith of Christians generally. 
Nothing can be more unjust and unreasonable. 
The further we depart from what is plainly laid 
down in Scripture, the less authoritative and the 
less binding our conclusion. 

We are prone to resent the restraints which 
divine revelation lays upon our reason and our 



116 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

will ; but the greatest curse which God, in pitiless 
Wrath, could inflict upon us, would not be to an- 
nihilate us at once and for ever ; but to let us live on 
for ever and leave us without any authoritative rule 
of conduct or definition of duty, to put out the light 
of truth, to take away the key of knowledge, to 
deny the consolations of grace, and extinguish the 
hope of glory. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 117 



LECTURE VI. 

APPARENT DISCREPANCIES TOUCHING JUSTIFICATION. 

When we look at any point of the visible horizon, 
it is but a very small portion of that glorious circle 
which we can embrace at a glance. Turning our 
eyes in one direction, we necessarily turn our backs 
upon the opposite point of the compass. If we had 
the hundred eyes of the fabled Argus — eyes before 
and behind and on either side — if, in a word, the 
whole body were one seeing faculty, we might survey 
the whole circle of the heavens at once. 

Precisely so is it with us in regard to moral 
truth ; we cannot take it in at once, in all its bear- 
ings and in all its beauty ; in the act of looking at 
one truth we turn our backs on another at the op- 
posite pole. This arises, evidently, not from any 
want of clearness or of prominence in the truth 
itself, but from the infirmity of our faculties. God 
alone can take in at a glance the boundless and 
beautiful circle of universal truth. To him — the in- 
finite and essential Light — the Father of lights and 
Fountain of light — no part of that circle is in 



118 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

shadow — no part is unseen. His eye rests at the 
same moment on all the propositions which constitute 
the sum of universal truth. 

What may be justly predicated of other truth, 
that it is consistent with itself, may, with the utmost 
confidence, be claimed for inspired truth. Sometimes 
this harmony may not be apparent, and then it be- 
comes a matter of faith. Sometimes it is obscured 
by difficulties, which arise from our ignorance, and 
which disappear before fuller knowledge ; but of this 
fact we may rest assured, that there is no real con- 
tradiction in inspired truth — that it is all capable 
of harmonious adjustment — that those truths which 
to us seem most mysterious and remote, pursue their 
even course, like the mighty and marshalled hosts 
of heaven, which, though separated by vast spaces 
and altogether invisible to mortal eyes — yet march 
on in beauteous order to the eye of God, and make 
sweetest melody in the Creator's ear. 

The testimony of the Apostles Paul and James 
touching the matter of justification, furnish the most 
remarkable instance, perhaps, in all the Bible of an 
apparent contradiction. 

Paul says expressly that we are justified by faith 
alone, without works. Gal. ii. 16; Rom. iv. 1-4. 
James says, in terms equally express, we are not 
justified by faith without works, but that we are 
justified by works also. James ii. 21-24. And as 
an illustration of his doctrine, each appeals to the 
case of Abraham. Thus at first sight, there seems 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 119 

to be a palpable contradiction throughout. So 
hopeless and invincible did the difficulty seem to 
Luther, that at one time he rejected the epistle of 
James from the Sacred Canon, and stigmatized it as 
an epistle of straw. He afterwards, however, cor- 
rected his judgment concerning the canonical author- 
ity of this epistle, as subsequent editions of the 
German Bible testify.* 

* Turrettin's Theology, vol. 4. Special dissertation De 
Concordia Pauli et Jacobi in Articulo Justificationis. The 
method of reconciling these two apostles adopted by Tur- 
rettin in his acute and learned discussion, and by Owen 
in his massive and masterly treatise on Justification, had 
not escaped the penetration of Augustine, the profoundest 
theologian among the Latin fathers. In his commentary 
on psalm xxxi., he thus remarks: Jam qui audit, non ex 
operibus, sed ex fide, observet illam voraginem, de qua 
locutus sum: Vides ergo quia ex fide, non ex operibus 
justificatus est Abraham ; faciam ergo quidquid volo, quia 
etsi bona opera non habuero, et tantum credidero in Deum, 
deputatur mihi ad justitiam. Si dixit et decrevit, lapsus 
demersus est; si adhuc cogitat et fluctuat, periclitatur. 
Scriptura autem Dei verusque intellectus, non solum peri- 
clitantem a periculo liberat, sed et demersum a profundo 
elevat. Respondeo ergo tanquam contra Apostolum et 
dico de ipso Abraham quod invenimus etiam in Epistola 
alterius apostoli, qui volebat corrigere homines, qui male 
intellexerant istum apostolum. Jacobus enim in Epistola 
sua, contra eos qui volebant bene operari de sola fide prae- 
sumentes, ipsius Abrahae opera commendavit, cujus Pau- 
lus fidem ; et non sunt sibi adversi Apostoli. Dicit autem 
opus omnibus notum, Abraham filium suum immolandum 
Deo obtulit (Jacobi ii. 21) magnum opus, sed ex fide. 



120 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

In the rejection of this epistle he was followed by 
the Magdeburg Centuriators. The Epistle of James 
was one of the last portions of Holy Writ to be re- 
ceived into the Sacred Canon ; not so much from 
any deficiency of external evidence, as because it 
was thought that this Apostle's doctrine concern- 
ing the efficacy of works, was in direct conflict with 
the scriptural doctrine of justification by faith in 
Christ, without the works of the law. This, together 
with the final and general reception of the Epistle 
into the Sacred Canon, proves, first, that the diffi- 
culty was great enough to be felt by the church; 
secondly, that still it was not invincible. 

I now proceed to show that there is no real dis- 
crepancy in the apostolic testimony, however real 
and great it may at first appear. Two knights of 
yore are said to have quarrelled about the inscription 
on a shield, and afterwards found that they were 
both right ; for they had been looking at the same 
shield, but from different sides. So it is in regard 
to the matter in hand. There was no real contra- 
diction between the knights, and there is none be- 
tween the Apostles. What each knight said of his 
side of the shield was true, and what each of these 
Apostles says of justification and faith is true. But 
the knights were not speaking of the same side of 
the shield, and the Apostles were not speaking with 

Laudo superaedificationem operis, sed video fidei funda- 
mentum ; laudo fructum boni operis, sed in fide agnosco 
radicem. 



rOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 121 

the same design, of the same justification, of the 
same faith, or of the same characters. The differ- 
ence between them, therefore, is verbal and ap- 
parent only, not real and essential. This will be 
evident : 

First, from a consideration of the design and 
scope of each. The free justification of the sinner 
before God, by faith alone, is the ruling thought of 
Paul's mind, and the reigning thought of all his 
epistles and addresses. In its foundation, develop- 
ment, proofs, and consequences, it occupies the larger 
part of the Epistle to the Romans, by far the most 
extended and elaborate of his writings. It is prom- 
inently put forward in the Epistles to the Galatians 
and to the Ephesians, and is recognized and affirmed 
throughout his epistles generally. He was the 
chosen champion of the doctrine, which, according to 
the great Luther, is the article of a standing or of a 
falling church. Paul was the great Protestant of 
that day against the manifold corruptions and anti- 
evangelical errors of the Jewish Theology, errors 
which have their deep foundation in human nature ; 
and have reappeared in various forms, and under 
different names in all subsequent ages. The student 
of the Scriptures and of church history, will con- 
tinually find ancient errors and devices represented 
as the discoveries of modern science, and the fictions 
of yesterday proclaimed as the high, unquestioned 
truths of antiquity. Some historical acquaintance 
not only with the current belief of the Jews in 
11 



122 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

Paul's day, but of the circle of errors through 
which Greek philosophy ran, is necessary to a full 
understanding of the Apostle Paul ; especially the 
first of his Epistles to the Corinthians and that to 
the Romans. Beginning with proud pretension, it 
ended in absolute and universal scepticism ; profess- 
ing to be able to explain all mysteries, or aspiring 
to do it, it ended with doubting all existence, all 
truth, all thought.* The errors against which Paul 
protested so vehemently are precisely those against 
which Augustine contended manfully in the fifth 
century ; and Luther, Calvin, Zuingli, Knox, 
Cranmer, and other faithful reformers in the six- 
teenth. The root of all these errors was and is, 
that fallen man has in himself a recuperative 
energy, that he can do something effectual and 
meritorious, toward restoring himself to the favour 
and fellowship of God. It matters not, in regard 
to the deadly effect of this error, whether it rest on 
a denial of the total depravity and consequent help- 
lessness of apostate man, or whether it proceed 
from some assumed relaxation of the holy rigour 
of the divine law, or upon a special covenant made 

* It is remarked by G-. H. Lewes in his History of 
Philosophy : Vol. ii. p. 136 : that modern sceptics have 
added nothing, which is not implied in the principles of 
the Pyrrhonists. The arguments by which Hume thought 
he destroyed all the grounds of certitude, are differently 
stated from those of Pyrrho, but not differently founded ; 
and they may be answered in the same way. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 123 

"with a particular family or nation ; it is, on either 
hypothesis and in any case, equally unscriptural, 
and altogether destructive of the grace of the gos- 
pel. The design of Paul, consistently carried out 
in all his extant addresses and epistles, was to cor- 
rect the prevailing errors on this subject, and 
authoritatively expound the real method of justifi- 
cation before God. This he does by showing that 
all men, Jews and Gentiles, are alike sinners against 
a known law ; that the sin is in every instance only 
aggravated in proportion to the clearness and fulness 
of the revelation ; that the covenant made with 
Abraham was not designed to secure the salvation 
of all his natural descendants, without respect to 
their personal character ; that the rite of circum- 
cision was so far from conveying a justifying virtue 
that it was itself the seal of the righteousness of 
faith ; that the blood of Jesus Christ afforded the 
only sacrifice for the sins of men ; that his perfect 
obedience not only satisfied but magnified the law ; and 
finally that through faith the justifying righteousness 
of Christ was imputed to the believer, so that he, for 
Christ's sake and for his sake alone, was discharged 
from the obligation to die and was received as right- 
eous before God. The righteousness of Christ im- 
puted to him, being the righteousness of God, manifest 
in the flesh, and the sufferings of Christ accepted for 
the expiation of his sins, being the agonies not of a 
mere man, nor of a mighty angel, but of one who 
was truly and in the most peculiar, exclusive, and 



124 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

exalted sense, the Son of God, the justified sinner, 
according to Paul's teaching, is not only free from 
all the penal demands of the law, which by his sins 
he had broken ; but is brought nearer to God, and is 
more inseparably united to him than Adam was 
before the falL 

The relation which faith bears to salvation in the 
theology of Paul, is very distinctly marked and is 
of vital consequence. It does not justify, because 
it is itself meritorious or the ground of our salvation, 
for Paul assumes or asserts, throughout, that no 
creature can lay God under obligation or can 
properly be said to merit anything good ; still fur- 
ther that no sinner can, while a sinner and as a 
sinner, do anything pleasing to God; still further 
that justifying faith is itself the gift of God, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. What then, according to 
Paul, is the relation of faith to justification ? It is, 
simply, that of an instrument by which we lay hold 
of and rest upon the strength and merit of another. 
Faith saves us, because by faith we receive Christ 
Jesus, the anointed and almighty Saviour, in his true 
character, in his proper office, as a gracious and 
God-given Redeemer from sin and death and hell. 
It is the link which unites the soul dead in sins to 
Christ, the source of spiritual and immortal life ; 
and as the dead man revived when he touched the 
bones of the prophet, so the dead soul revives when 
brought into contact with the Lord of life. Faith 
has no virtue in itself, save as it puts us in connec- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 125 

tion with Him who is made unto us of God wisdom, 
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Faith 
saves us, because by faith we come to Christ, the 
Saviour. We receive him ; we believe on him, and 
by his grace we are his and he is ours. 

The design of the Apostle James was entirely 
different from that of the Apostle Paul. It was not 
to speak of the method of our justification in the 
sight of God at all, but of the evidence of our justi- 
fication in the sight of men, such as could be sub- 
mitted to the intelligent judgment of our fellow- 
creatures, and should be satisfactory to ourselves 
and others. There seems to have been men in that 
day, who believed and taught that the nominal 
renunciation of Paganism or Judaism, and the bare 
profession of the Christian faith, was enough to save 
them, while they retained all their ancient vices, or 
were at least total strangers to the purity, benevo- 
lence, and charity of the gospel. The manifest 
design of James was to rebuke their practical immor- 
alities and neglects — to show that these were incon- 
sistent with the Christian profession, at war with 
the benevolent spirit of the gospel, and incompatible 
with its most imperative obligations. 

The faith of which Paul speaks as justifying, is 
not the faith which James affirms that it cannot 
justify. So far are they from being the same, that 
they have not one thing except the name in com- 
mon. According to the uniform testimony of Paul, 

the faith which justifies a sinner before God, is 
11* 



126 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

never found alone. It is a faith which works by 
love and purifies the heart. It is variously and 
vitally connected with every other Christian grace, 
and it establishes its own identity ; it proves and 
proclaims itself a divine faith, only when it is evi- 
dently productive and powerful, a root from which 
every other noble virtue springs, and of which hea- 
venly charity is "the bright consummate flower." 
Hence, this very apostle thus exhorts his Philippian 
brethren : " Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever 
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, what- 
soever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
whatsoever things are of good report, if there be 
any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these 
things." Phil. iv. 8. 

It is a very striking illustration of the apos- 
tles' harmony in doctrine, that Peter commences his 
glorious catalogue, his golden band of Christian 
virtues, with this radical and fruit-bearing grace. 
" And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your 
faith, virtue [or manly energy] ; and to virtue 
knowledge ; and to knowledge temperance ; and to 
temperance patience ; and to patience godliness ; 
and to godliness brotherly kindness ; and to bro- 
therly kindness charity." 2 Peter i. 5 — 7. 

Such is the faith connected with every Christian 
virtue, productive of every Christian grace, and 
flowering out in love ; such is the faith that Paul 
says justifies without the works of the law. It jus- 
tifies alone, but not being alone. The works, how- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 127 

ever, with which it is invariably found connected in 
our experience, are in no sense the cause, but in 
every case the effect and the evidence, of our justifi- 
cation before God. 

Now let us compare, or rather contrast with this, 
what is predicated of the faith of which the Apostle 
James affirmed that it cannot justify. It is a faith, 
the very essence of which is profession or presump- 
tion. It is not found associated with other graces. 
It does not produce good works. It is not fruitful, 
but barren ; not living, but dead ; not saving, but 
worthless. It is not faith in deed, but in name only. 
It can deny a starving brother. It cannot clothe 
a naked sister. It is a faith no better than the 
faith of devils, who believe and tremble, but not adore 
and love ; a faith seeming and spurious, not real and 
genuine — like bad money, which may have the name 
of the king upon it, but is made of base metal — cop- 
per for gold, and lead for silver. The faith then, 
of which the two apostles speak, is not the same 
faith. Paul is speaking of a living faith, w T hose 
fruits and proofs he gives. James of a dead faith, 
without works and every way worthless. Since, 
therefore, they do not speak of the same faith, there 
is no real contradiction between them. 

The truth is, that the other apostles urge the 
indispensable necessity of good works, as the proper 
evidences of regeneration, quite as freely as James, 
when the occasion demands it. Thus Paul says of 
Christians, that they are " created in Christ Jesus 



128 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

unto good works. " Eph. ii. 10. He says the 
design of Christ's death was " to purify to him- 
self a peculiar people, zealous of good works.' ' 
Titus ii. 14. He not only inculcates good works in 
general, but in numberless places urges the obliga- 
tion of particular duties, and affirms that it is a 
distinctive mark of the gospel doctrine, that it is a 
doctrine according to godliness, and says of wicked 
men that while they profess to know God, yet in 
works they deny him. Titus i. 16. I have dwelt on 
these testimonies from Paul, the more fully, because 
it has been thought that his doctrine was diametri- 
cally opposed to the doctrine of James ; and that 
while one was the champion of faith, the other was 
the champion of works. The Apostle John, besides 
urging particular duties, such as the forgiveness of 
offenders, and kindness to the poor, almost in the 
words of James, 1 John iii. 17, sums up all the 
evidences of love to God in one, keeping his com- 
mandments. 

As the faith of which Paul speaks is different from 
that of which James speaks, so also is the justifica- 
tion. Paul intends justification in the sight of God. 
James intends justification in the sight of men. 
Paul refers to that "act of God's free grace wherein 
he pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as right- 
eous in his sight, only for the righteousness of 
Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. " 
Eph. i. 7; 2 Cor. v. 21; Rom. v. 19. James refers 
to the demonstration to ourselves and others, that 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 129 

we are justified persons — a demonstration which 
cannot be made or conceived of, except by works 
and through works. Paul's object is to exhibit the 
method by which a guilty sinner is pardoned and 
accepted of God, and obtains a clear title to the 
heavenly inheritance. The object of James is not 
to declare the method of justification before God, 
but to show wherein Christian character consisted 
and whereby it might be evinced. His sole and 
simple purpose is to show by what effects and argu- 
ments we may rightly conclude, who are justified 
persons. 

Keeping in mind the facts, that the two apostles 
are speaking of a different faith, of a different 
justification, and of characters widely different : the 
one of a living and working, the other of a dead and 
worthless faith ; the one of justification before God, 
the other of justification before men; the one of 
a conscious and convinced sinner, the other of a 
sensual and false-hearted Antinomian, we may 
now see how they might both appeal with equal 
propriety to Abraham as a practical illustration of 
the truth taught. 

James says that Abraham was justified by works, 
and the particular work intended was the offering 
up of Isaac at the command of God. This, taken in 
all its circumstances, is the most illustrious act of 
obedience recorded of any mere man; and every 
word of that command seems purposely selected to 
heighten the trial and magnify the triumph of the 



130 

patriarch's obedience. "And he said, Take now 
thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, 
and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him 
there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains 
which I will tell thee of." Gen. xxii. 2. Isaac was 
the son of his old age, the child of promise, the heir 
of the covenant, born by miracle, the progenitor of 
the Messiah. The act of obedience was not of such 
a nature that it could be instantly despatched, but 
was to be postponed as to its consummation for 
several days, and this dear son was to die, not by 
the common visitation of men, not by slow disease, 
not by sudden accident, not even by hostile violence 
at the hand of a stranger, but by an uplifted knife 
in his father's hand. We know how hard it is for 
a parent to bear the death of a beloved son, even 
when he falls in the path of glory and of duty. 
Oliver Cromwell tells us — strong-hearted soldier as 
he was — that the death of his son, slain in battle, 
went to his heart like a dagger. Edmund Burke 
soon followed to the grave the remains of his gifted 
son, whose genius he fondly believed superior to his 
own, and whose loss he did not wish to survive.* 

* Nothing can be more affecting than the language in 
which Burke deplores the death of his son: "The storm 
has gone over me; and I lie like one of those old oaks 
which the late hurricane has scattered about me. I am 
stripped of all my honours ; I am torn up by the roots and 
lie prostrate on the earth. I am alone, I have none to 
meet my enemies in the gate ; desolate at home, stripped 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 131 

Could anything be imagined, therefore, better adapted 
to show that the faith of Abraham was real, prac- 
tical, supernatural? Could anything better illus- 
trate the view of the nature, design, and office of 
faith, which the Apostle James had given, than this 
incident in the life of Abraham? Did not this 
heroic act of obedience prove him a justified person 
to himself, to his nation, to us, and to all men? 
Was not the plaudit of Jehovah just? u For now I 
know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not- 
withheld thy son, thine only son, from me." Gen. 
xxii. 12. 

Now let us see how reasonably and forcibly the 
case of Abraham is alleged by Paul, to illustrate 
his doctrine of the justification of a sinner before 
God, without works and by faith alone. This sublime 
act of obedience on the part of Abraham was not 
the cause of his justification, but the evidence and 
the fruit of it. For he was in a justified state at 
the very time of its performance, Moses and Paul 
being witnesses, and not only so, we have the same 
divine warrant for affirming that at the period of 
his offering up Isaac, he had been in a justified state 
for thirty years. In the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, 
referring to a period thirty years antecedent, it is 
said " he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to 
him for righteousness." Gen. xv. 6. Finally, it is 
said by the Apostle Paul, "And he received the 

of my boast, my hope, my consolation, my helper, my 
counsellor, and my guide/' — Prior's Life of Burke. 



132 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of 
the faith, which he had yet being uncircumcised, 
that he might be the father of all them that believe, 
though they be not circumcised, that righteousness 
might be imputed to them also." Rom. iv. 11. So 
we may conclude assuredly, that there is no con- 
tradiction between those two apostles, but the most 
perfect accord since they speak respectively of a 
different faith — of a different justification — and of 
different characters. 

If it be asked, Why this apparent discrepancy in 
the testimony of two inspired writers? we reply 
that it is designed to exercise our faith and stimulate 
our diligence. "What I do thou knowest not now, 
but thou shalt know hereafter/' is the key to all the 
difficulties of Scripture. As there is the hiding of 
Jehovah's power, so there is the hiding of his pur- 
pose. When the difficulties are insoluble and in- 
superable, this concealment is to repress our in- 
tellectual pride and rebuke our rash judgments. 
" Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou 
find out the Almighty to perfection?" In the mind 
of God and in the counsels of God there is infinite 
harmony; but that harmony is not always evident 
to us. We may see that several propositions are 
contained in what we acknowledge to be a divine 
revelation ; and yet we may not be able to perceive 
their consistency and correspondence. The proper 
course in that case is to take each on its own proper 
evidence, and wait for the fuller light of heaven 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 133 

to shine upon them and show their mutual accord- 
ance. 

When, however, the difficulty is of such a nature 
that it may be removed or subdued by careful study, 
the plain design of providence in permitting it, is 
to stimulate our diligence in the investigation of 
truth. And this design is not more obvious than 
beneficent. Many a truth passes lightly over the 
surface of the mind because it is so evident and 
familiar ; and many a passage of great preciousness 
and profound significance is slightly regarded be- 
cause its import is obvious. It is an acute and 
characteristic observation of Coleridge that, " Truths 
of all others the most awful and interesting, are 
too often considered as so true, that they lose all 
the power of truth, and lie bed-ridden in the dor- 
mitory of the soul, side by side with the most de- 
spised and exploded errors.' ' The very difficulties 
that we meet with in the study of the Scriptures, 
not only provoke inquiry but increase our strength 
and brighten our joy, when submitted to with 
humility or surmounted with success. Just as when 
a man is walking on level ground, he is apt to walk 
on lazily or turn aside lightly ; but when he has to 
ascend a high and rugged hill, or wade through a 
deep and perilous morass, he gathers up his strength 
and girds himself for labour. 

We have seen that Paul presents our justification 
in one of its aspects, and James in another ; separate 
and distinct, but not in conflict or contradiction. 
12 



134 

A corollary may be drawn from either aspect of the 
subject worthy of our consideration. 

The first is the importance of keeping the law and 
the gospel strictly separate in the matter of our 
justification before God. This is not a secondary 
concern — a thing of speculation or theory, but of 
prime necessity, of supreme moment. It is not a 
matter in which our Christian comfort and clear- 
ness alone are involved, it is a matter of life and 
death with us. There is but one method of justifi- 
cation for a sinner before God, and that is the 
method revealed in the gospel by faith on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, a Saviour objectively presented, a 
Saviour out of ourselves, a Sacrifice of infinite merit 
and power. We cannot trust partly in him, and 
partly in ourselves, in our repentance, our faith, 
our reformation, our love, our humility, our prayers, 
our tears, our benefactions, or anything that is ours, 
either as wrought in us, or done by us. We may 
not divide the work or the glory with him. We 
must be content to receive a free pardon and hope 
in a gracious Saviour. Do this, and you need never 
fear falling into condemnation ; he will receive you 
as you are, and make you what you ought to be ; he 
will take you in the roughness and pollution of your 
nature, and make you a pure and polished pillar in 
the temple of our God whence you shall no more go 
out for ever. He will look upon you in your naked- 
ness and blood, cast out as defiled and loathsome 
and execrable, and he will wash you in clean water 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 135 

and clothe you in a shining robe, and put a ring on 
your hands and shoes on your feet. His salvation 
is of pure grace. He came not to call the righteous 
but sinners to repentance : Christ is God's free gift: 
the Spirit is his free gift : heaven is his free gift : 
repentance, faith, perseverance, and eternal glory — 
all that accompanies, accomplishes, and constitutes 
salvation, all is his free gift. 

The second is the importance of guarding against 
practical Antinomianism, or the profane notion, 
that we believe in Christ, we are orthodox Chris- 
tians, and, therefore, we shall be saved, though we 
live not as becometh the gospel. The great danger 
with many in our time, is a forgetfulness of James' 
doctrine, that we are justified by works also, and 
not by faith alone, that our faith itself is justified, 
and our Christian confession can be justified only 
by works. Already we can discern clear signs of 
impatience in many, when the binding obligation of 
good works is urgently exhibited. Such teaching is 
stigmatized as legal teaching. If this is legal teach- 
ing, then Paul was a legal teacher, when he exhorted 
to "maintain good works for necessary uses." Tit. 
iii 14. And James, when he said, " Show me thy 
faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith 
by my works." James ii. 18. And Peter, when he 
said, "As obedient children, not fashioning your- 
selves according to the former lusts in your igno- 
rance : but as He which hath called you is holy, so 
be ye holy in all manner of conversation ; because 



136 THE TRUE PATH, OB, THE 

it is written, Be ye holy for I am holy." 1 Peter i. 
14-16. And John, " Beloved, follow not that which 
is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good 
is of God; but he that doeth evil bath not seen God." 
John iii. 11. And our Lord himself: " A good tree 
cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt 
tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth 
not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into 
the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know 
them." Matt. vii. 18-20. In the dispensation of 
God, our sanctification flows from our justification, 
but in the experience of man, we infer our justifica- 
tion from the consciousness of our sanctification. 
The only certain evidence, therefore, which a man 
can exhibit to satisfy himself or another that he has 
faith, is afforded by his works. Mere profession 
without works is mere delusion, or presumption, or 
hypocrisy. The pretence of piety without the mor- 
tification of sin, without justice, truth, conscientious- 
ness, humility, self-denial, alms-giving, brotherly- 
kindness, and charity is inexpressibly odious in the 
sight of God, our Supreme Judge, injurious to the 
souls of our fellowmen, and a high aggravation of 
every other sin. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 137 



LECTURE VII. 

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, THE LEAVEN OF LIFE. 

How different the emotions which the spectacle 
of Athens awakened in the souls of Cicero and of 
Paul ! both of whom saw this illustrious city, as we 
know, and at no great interval of time. The one 
surveyed it with the eye and the heart of a heathen ; 
although a philosopher, a scholar, a statesman, and 
an orator. He instinctively and delightedly re- 
called its ancient glories ; the voices of the gifted 
dead still rang in his ears ; the awful tones of De- 
mosthenes aroused a sympathetic dread or an admir- 
ing glow, in the heart of the orator. The splendid 
rule of Pericles spoke to the statesman ; those 
structures, which even in decay and in fragments, 
have been the admiration and despair of succeeding 
ages, appealed to his sense of the beautiful, still 
more deeply touched by the unrivalled productions 
of the pencil and the chisel, fit ornaments of such 
architecture ; and then, as the crown of all, the in- 
tellectual glories, which like a spiritual halo encircled 
those wondrous works of art, those matchless 
12* 



138 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

triumphs of the painter, the sculptor, and the archi- 
tect — temples and theatres, which revived the hoar 
majesty of iEschylus, the moral wisdom and 
pathetic vehemence of Euripides, the artistic skill, 
the harmonious grandeur, and the consummate grace 
of Sophocles. 

The actual emotions excited in the mind of the 
apostle are not left to conjecture. His spirit was 
stirred within him, w T hen he saw the city wholly 
given to idolatry. He seems not to have had an 
eye or a thought for inferior interests, although no 
stranger to the culture of the Greeks. What to 
him were the graceful proportions of the Parthenon, 
or the glories of the famous Pnyx, w T here the great- 
est of orators had so often held spell-bound the 
most imaginative and the most impulsive souls to 
whom human eloquence had ever been addressed ? 
What to him were the artistic triumphs of Phidias 
or Praxiteles, when the orator in the height of his 
great argument, though a Pericles or a Demosthenes, 
could appeal only to an unknown God ? and what to 
him were the aesthetic attractions of a temple or im- 
age, if that temple were dedicated to Minerva or to 
Venus, and that image consecrated to Jupiter or 
Mars ? He felt that men's religious interests were 
their highest interests, that God's best gift to man 
was the gospel, though foolishness to the Greek ; 
that it was the most potent factor and the most pre- 
cious element that had ever entered into the history 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 139 

and heart of man ; that it was the tree of life, whose 
leaves were for the healing of the nations. 

Men there are in the world who are not of the 
world, the good seed of the kingdom, children of 
the light and the day. The superficial may be able 
to discern no difference between them and others. 
There is nothing peculiar in their dialect, dress, diet, 
or occupation ; but their principles, aims, instincts, 
spirit, their pains and pleasures, hopes, and fears, 
all are different from those of this world's children, 
their character in time and their destiny for ever ! 
God the Creator and Father of all men, but by a 
double and a dearer title, their God and Father, 
does not regard them as he regards others. They 
are especially dear to him, his elect lot, his beloved 
heritage, his desired portion, " a garden enclosed, a 
spring shut up, a fountain sealed." Song iv. 12. 
For them he moves, controls, exalts, abases, all 
other agents ; for them he orders all events and de- 
termines all their issues. 

Accordingly, one thing especially remarkable 
about the Christian religion is the absolute identity 
of its manifestations all over the world and in all 
ages of the world ; not merely the internal bond, 
that constitutes its essential unity, the conclusive 
fact that all its doctrines cohere and correspond, 
that there should be no irreconcilable conflict be- 
tween statements of innumerable men of various 
nations, ranks, lineage, education, calling, and ex- 
tending over a vast period of not less than sixteen 



140 

centuries, from the author of the book of Genesis 
to the author of the book of Revelation; not this 
merely, but the practical spirit which it has evinced, 
and the practical fruits which it has borne in every 
soil and under every sky. In the four quarters of 
the globe, the faithful servants of the true God have 
been distinguishable, from the giving of the law on 
Mount Sinai to the preaching of the gospel on the 
Mount of Blessing ; from the first century of the 
Christian era to the present day, by the same attri- 
butes, evincing the same traits, doing the same 
deeds, preferring duty to interest, rendering good 
for evil, and renouncing life rather than a good 
conscience. 

Under every dispensation, the grand design of 
every revelation of grace has been to bring many 
sons unto glory ; to redeem immortal souls from the 
deadly evils of the first apostasy, and conduct them 
to the full fruition of heavenly bliss. When one of 
our race is regenerated by the Holy Ghost, adopted 
into the family of God, and made an heir of eternal 
glory, Satan loses a slave and a victim, our Father 
in heaven gains a child and a worshipper for ever ! 
What a change takes place in the spirit, the charac- 
ter, the destiny of the subject of that gracious 
adoption in time and throughout eternal ages ! 
What wonder that the angels in heaven rejoice over 
a repenting sinner ; that the Father of all rejoices ; 
that the Son of God rejoices over the returning 
prodigal ! If any man sin and one convert him, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 141 

" let him know that he which convereth the sinner 
from the error of his way shall save a soul from 
death and shall hide a multitude of sins." James v. 
20. Is it not worth then all the anxieties which 
the christian can endure, all the efforts that he can 
make, all the intercessions that he can employ, and 
all the indignities that he can suffer, to achieve such 
an end ? 

The sovereign good of human nature is holiness, 
inward purity, consecration to God, in which alone 
we attain that freedom, dignity, and happiness, in 
w T hich the proper perfection of our nature consists. 
This then is what all men should seek first and 
most; happiness will naturally follow in the wake of 
duty. Self-seeking is self-destruction. The direct 
pursuit of pleasure is the certain death of happiness. 
Nothing indeed should be mainly and primarily 
sought but duty. When a man has any other guide, 
seeks any other end, he is self-condemned ; and the 
voice of his own condemning conscience is but the 
echo of the more awful voice of God. To fit us for 
heaven we need an inherent and subjective qualifi- 
cation, and this qualification is holiness, the wash- 
ing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy 
Ghost. Heaven is an unmerited but not an arbi- 
trary gift, and therefore not irrespective of moral 
fitness. Rev. xxi. 27. Without personal godli- 
ness, the perpetual presence of God would be the 
most abhorred thraldom, the most terrible woe. 

Our preparation for heaven is a progressive work, 



142 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

and God detains us upon the earth only till it is com- 
pleted. We should indeed be saved if we were to 
die the moment the Saviour says, " Thy sins are 
forgiven thee ;" but we have not a proper and per- 
fect fitness for our purchased crown, until our work 
on earth is ended, the battle fought and the victory 
won. Addressing myself especially to young men, just 
entering on a religious course, I say, Press on, strive 
to enter in at the strait gate, remember that a crown, 
a kingdom is before you, a crown of righteousness 
and the kingdom of heaven. If a Christian at all, 
you will endeavour to be a growing Christian, and 
you will be. Until the end of your life you will be 
making daily progress in knowledge, zeal, love, 
devotion. You will have an increasing power in 
prayer, more courage and heart for duty. You will 
be more conscientious as you become more confirmed 
in holiness and wisdom. The painter with every 
touch of his brush gives more distinctness, delicacy, 
harmony, finish to his picture. Day by day, the 
sun and air cause a deeper shade to descend on the 
golden rind of the summer fruit, and add more 
sweetness to its luscious juices. So with Christian 
character, every day will add a finer tint, a livelier 
hue. Daily will evil passions be more perfectly sub- 
dued, faults confessed and corrected, errors detected 
and amended, under the discipline of Providence, 
the means of grace, and the teaching of the Holy 
Ghost. 

The gospel is the great instrument of spiritual 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 143 

regeneration, according to the commission of our 
Lord to the apostles, " Go ye into all the world and 
preach the gospel to every creature, teaching them 
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
you, and lo ! I am with you always, even unto the 
end of the world." Here we have the original 
affirmation of the teaching office of the church ; the 
permanent commission of representatives and min- 
isters, in its Author and purpose, in its terms and 
promise. 

The whole world, then, is to be sought, to be 
reached, to be renovated. Unregenerate humanity is 
the corrupt mass ; the gospel of the grace of God is 
the leaven which is to pervade and purify it. The 
church of the living God, small and unnoticed in its 
earlier progress and incipient movements, is destined 
when grown, to fill the earth with its fragrance and 
its fruit, as the grain of mustard seed which a man 
took and sowed in his field, u which indeed is the least 
of all seeds, but when it is grown is the greatest 
among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds 
of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.' ' 
Matt. xiii. 32. 

These characteristic images are supposed to set 
forth, with admirable aptness and completeness, the 
two-fold aspect and operation of the gospel, inten- 
sive and extensive, on the thoughts, affections, dis- 
course, and conduct of the individual man, as they 
are progressively pervaded and transformed thereby ; 
and its external operation on the forms and forces, 



144 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

the institutions and usages, the objects and interests 
of organized society. 

The universal spread of the blessed gospel in its 
doctrine and spirit, in its power and glory, is the 
heaven-ordained process by which men are to be 
delivered from corruption, translated into a king- 
dom, and invested with a character of righteousness. 
To act upon this great truth is the office of faith ; 
to put our trust in no earthly organization, in no 
human contrivance, in no system of man's device, 
in no scheme of philanthropy, in no scheme of 
benevolence ; but in the pure and simple gospel, 
wherein is the wisdom of God and the power of 
God unto salvation. Honour the gospel, honour 
God, and he will honour you. Cast contempt upon 
him, his truth, his church, which is the pillar and 
ground of the truth, his chosen instrument to reform 
and save men, and he will overwhelm you and your 
presumptuous schemes with merited confusion and 
shame. Moral and benevolent societies are very 
good things, when directed to proper objects and 
under wise control ; but they are not the gospel, 
and they are not the church. They never can be 
the instrument of the world's regeneration. All 
such pretensions are vain and fallacious, arrogant 
and wicked. 

God's providence appears in so ordering all 
things — the minutest, the most painful, seemingly 
the most adverse and injurious — as to facilitate the 
conversion and effect the final salvation of his 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 145 

own people. His natural and gracious sovereignty- 
over all elements, agents, events, and effects, in 
endless succession, is gloriously exercised in doing 
just what is needful ; sending trouble when, where, 
in the form, in the way, and in the measure, in 
which it will be most efficacious ; at the same time 
operating within by his Spirit, on the thoughts 
and affections of the heart, so as most effectually to 
incline it to himself, and bind it fast in- chains of 
heavenly love. Of one thing we have the absolute 
assurance, that Christ, as King, shall ultimately 
subdue, by his word and Spirit, all his and our ene- 
mies ; among whom the chief and worst are unbe- 
lief, pride, rebellion, sinful anger, lust, superstition, 
covetousness, and the love of this present evil 
world. 

Every man contributes to the diffusion of the 
gospel, as himself imbued with its spirit and power. 
As himself leavened, he is not only one taken from 
the corrupt mass, and so in an individual and iso- 
lated form leavened ; but he directly spreads the 
hallowed influence, and so the saving process goes 
on, until a family, a state, a nation, a world is 
leavened. The man, who is not faithful to every 
other man's soul, is not faithful to his own. The 
man who does not properly care for, pray for, and 
labour for the conversion and edification of every 
member of his family, of every human being in the 
proportion of his personal claims on his Christian 

charity, is not faithful to his own spiritual interests. 
13 



146 

So wisely hath God identified our own comfort and 
safety, with the punctual discharge of our duty to the 
souls of all others ; and so effectually hath he provided 
for the universal diffusion of gospel light and truth ! 
Men do not stand apart, insulated, alone in this world. 
There is therefore in the saving conversion to God 
of a particular person, not the mere leavening of 
that one, not the subtraction of a single unit from the 
side of sin and Satan, and the carrying over of that 
single unit to the side of holiness and of the Saviour; 
there is not merely the kindling of one other light 
in a dark place, but there is the lifting aloft of one 
who shall shine, and cheer, and guide, by his 
own solitary radiance, but the putting into being 
and brightness one from whose blazing body innu- 
merable other lights may be kindled in all lands and 
through all time. It is not the mere electrifying 
of a single substance, cut off from all communica- 
tion with every other, but it is the communication 
of the electric current to a whole battery at once, 
or in scarcely appreciable succession. The history 
of the propagation of religion in this way, from 
man to man, like men riding post and taking the 
truth from one point to another, from one person to 
another, like the fiery cross of Scotish story, 
the gleaming light borne far over hill and dale, 
by the first messenger committed to a second, 
who repeats the same process, and then he in turn 
gives it to a third, until the whole country is illu- 
minated and. aroused ; or like men joining hands, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 147 

in long succession and in a vast circle — such a his- 
tory would be replete alike with interest and 
instruction. Thus from Adam to Enoch, from 
Enoch to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from 
Abraham to David, and from David to Christ ; 
then taking the advent of the Redeemer as the 
second great starting-point, tracing this line of light 
over the vast spaces which have intervened ; some 
of them centuries of darkness, degradation, supersti- 
tion, and shame ; but that line of light, though 
flickering and feeble, never quite extinguished, but 
still visible, and sometimes rising and beaming far 
and high with heavenly radiance, from Christ to 
Paul, from Paul to Augustine, from Augustine to 
Luther, from Luther to the present hour! How 
strict and clear the connection between the conver- 
sion of many of these, as of Paul and Stephen, 
Augustine and Ambrose — Augustine from whose 
heaven-filled urn so many of God's faithful servants 
replenished their waning lamps, during the long 
night of Papal domination and darkness, till the 
rise of Martin Luther aud John Calvin, both of 
whom reverenced him as they reverenced no other 
uninspired mortal ; and in later days from William 
Wilberforce to Legh Richmond, from Legh Rich- 
mond to John Newton, and from John Newton to 
Thomas Scott. 

Think of the leavening influence going out from 
all of these men ; from the great Protestant reformers 
of Germany, France, Switzerland, England, and 



148 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

Scotland, personally by their preaching and example 
while they lived ; by their writings and their prayers, 
which in different ways, have operated on the minds 
and hearts of men, since they died ; and which must 
continue to live and work and spread, 

" Till the last syllable of recorded time," 

"like a circle in the water, which never ceaseth to 
enlarge itself." The man who in any way con- 
tributes to the diffusion of this leaven by his life, 
his labours, his teaching, his prayers, or his money, 
is doing a certain, an endless, an incalculable good. 
The better and nobler order of spirits have a high 
sense of intellectual obligation. They feel a strong 
personal attachment to their teachers, those who 
have led them into the secret chambers of moral 
wisdom, at first of difficult access it may be, but 
once entered, shining with a serene and heavenly 
light, garnished with pure gold and pearls and precious 
stones, and compassed about with goodly pillars and 
strong and stately walls. They feel a sentiment of 
personal gratitude to those who first elicited their 
dormant energies, furthered the development of their 
conscious powers, communicated to their minds a 
pleasure higher far than the wealth of Xerxes could 
purchase, or the banquets of Apicius afford — the 
pleasure that springs up in the soul on the percep- 
tion of a new truth, or of an old truth in new forms, 
under new aspects, in new relations. Every scholar 
is sensible of a feeling akin to personal attachment 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 149 

to the great intellectual benefactors of the race, 
stars of the first magnitude in the firmament of 
letters ; to Bacon " the minister and interpreter of 
nature," who so justly says of himself, " I have 
taken all knowledge to be my province ;" to Milton, 
to whom it was given " to celebrate in glorious and 
lofty hymns the throne and equipage of God's 
almightiness, and what he works, and what he 
suffers to be wrought with high providence in his 
church ; to sing victorious agonies of martyrs and 
saints, the deeds and triumphs of just and pious 
nations;" to Shakspeare "so noble in reason! so 
infinite in faculties!" How much greater, how 
much more worthy of grateful remembrance, obli- 
gations purely spiritual and religious ! What do 
we not owe to the great Protestant Reformers, 
to our own spiritual pastors, who in labour and 
weariness, with many tears and temptations, have 
watched for our souls as they that must give ac- 
count ! Hereafter, how vain and empty will many 
objects seem, which now so engross and ensnare 
us ! How lighter than the small dust of the 
balance, the aims of vulgar ambition, the petty 
gains and honours, the jealousies, the triumphs, 
the hopes and fears, w T hich now so absorb and 
agitate us ! When once the line that separates for 
us time and eternity has been passed, our brief 
a.nd unreturning probation ended ; of what infinite 
importance will purely spiritual labours and attain- 
ments seem ! 
13* 



150 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

All lands and times are bound together by thou- 
sand-fold influences. The aggregate of all history, 
known and unknown, the former chiefly affects the 
thinker — moulds the mind and heart of successive 
generations. We act on the future, and we in turn 
are acted on by the past. Every event in time, 
every thought of man, expressed in speech or action, 
is at once a seed and segment of universal history. 
It is this which throws such an immense responsibility 
around human opinion, feeling, and action. We 
cannot even in thought touch the utmost limit to 
which influence extends, or the innumerable avenues 
through which it goes forth. The knowledge of the 
influence which good and bad men respectively exert, 
is concealed from them in great part till eternity. 
God alone, who has given men their faculties and 
assigned their duties, to whom the ultimate and 
most awful responsibility is due, can fully estimate 
the infinite importance of faithful obedience to his 
own laws. Thus our very ignorance of the remote 
and possible consequences of our conduct should 
instruct us. Of whatever else we may be ignorant, 
we know that, 

" Duty, stern daughter of the voice of Grod," 

is a sacred thing. We cannot tell how far the 
consequences of obedience or rebellion may reach, 
or how long they may endure. It is not our part 
to reckon consequences, or balance probabilities, 
but to obey laws. Who can estimate the remote 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 151 

issue of one act of resolute virtue or of one life of 
heroic service, like that of Moses or Paul, of Luther 
or Martyn ? 

The most potent agencies of nature are always 
slow and silent. When Jehovah Spoke of old to 
the prophet, it was not in the great and strong wind 
which rent the mountains, nor in the earthquake, 
nor yet in the fire ; but in the still, small voice ; 1 
Kings xix. 9-13; and so it has ever been. The 
wisest of us are very incompetent judges of the 
elevation and dignity, the magnitude or the extent 
of moral forces. The kingdom of God cometh not 
with observation. Religion is making progress 
when the world, when the church, and the teachers 
and rulers of the church, are not dreaming of it. 
If we had " senses exercised to discern both good 
and evil ;" Heb. v. 14 ; a more delicate tact where- 
with to perceive spiritual things, the scarcely 
audible whisper of a divine truth as of the gentle 
sigh of the summer wind, passing over the tender 
grass, the scarcely formed footprints of the King 
of kings, as in noiseless majesty he passes by, the 
ethereal aroma of the Saviour's presence and work- 
ing, so "that though he would not be known, yet 
he could not be hid, ,, the obscure intimation of the 
glorious day in the first faint flush of the rising 
dawn, we should oftentimes be thankful and glad, 
when now we are cast down with sorrow and fear. 
It may serve, too, to show how shallow as well as 
audacious, are the flings and jeers of free-thinkers 



152 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

and pseudo-philosophers, like the Pantheist Carlyle, 
when they would fain have it believed that the 
Christianity of our time is worn out and worthless, 
incapable of heroic struggles and sacrifices, of the 
crown of martyrdom and the palm of victory. 

Patient progress is the law of the kingdom of 
God on earth. Men are impatient and impulsive. 
They are for precipitating events, doing every thing 
at once, sowing the seed and reaping the harvest, 
the same day. Not so God, with whom a thousand 
years are as one day, and one day as a thousand 
years. The world was created successively, not 
simultaneously, all its kingdoms and species and 
races at once. Four thousand years were suffered 
to elapse from the apostasy to the redemption, from 
the expulsion of the first Adam from Eden in shame 
and sorrow, to the opening of " the most ancient" 
heavens to receive the second Adam, the triumphant 
and ascending Saviour, the glorious Conqueror of 
the gloomy realm of sin and death, the gracious 
Revealer and Giver of Paradise regained, a world of 
perfect joy and love, a region of perpetual light and 
sunshine and peace. 

The providence of God is the gradual evolution 
and accomplishment of a far-reaching plan. Every 
step contemplates something beyond, is conditioned 
by the past, and connected with the future. The 
same great law applies to the three great kingdoms 
of nature, of providence, and of grace; in each there 
is first the grain, then the ear, after that the full 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 153 

corn in the ear. " Excelsior" is the Christian's proper 
motto, as it is his constant aim. He is called con- 
tinually to purer and loftier heights of holiness, 
until at last, every sin subdued, and every stain 
effaced, he is invited to come up higher, above the 
starry heights, beyond the crystal sphere, aloof 
from the region of storm and tempest, of sin and 
death, to mansions of peace and glory prepared in 
heaven for him. The life that we now live is an 
education for eternity ; and on the proper exercise, 
and discipline, and consequent development of our 
powers on earth, may depend the largeness, the 
variety, and the comparative glory of our final 
attainments. This may possibly be true, and most 
probably is true, in regard to the redeemed at least, 
of our purely intellectual progress, especially in 
the knowledge of what is revealed, and in obedience 
at once to the law of conscience and to the love of 
truth. It holds certainly and absolutely of our 
moral and spiritual attainments. The talent which 
is now wisely laid out, will there be found to have 
multiplied exceedingly, and yet in proportion to 
our present diligence. So that at death, there will 
not only be an immediate, but a prospective and 
progressive reward for our present faithfulness in 
self-culture in the service of God. Every stroke 
that is designed to bring out the living image of 
perfect excellence, will go sounding on through the 
noiseless slumber of the tomb, through the dateless 
ages of eternity. Still, we must never forget, that 



154 THE TRUE PATH, OK THE 

religion does not consist in speculative knowledge, 
or in sentimental virtue, or in motiveless action, or 
in constitutional benevolence, or in an external 
course of good living based upon earthly principles 
and affections. It is a life, created and kindled by 
the breath of God, having its seat in the soul, and 
its proof and power in all manifestations within and 
without; conscious and sensible in the affections, 
principles, and conduct. 

Constant progress is the law of the religious life 
of the individual believer. The reason why any 
"that did run well" fall away, is the fatal thought 
that they can fall back, with impunity, that they can 
stand still without danger. Under these delusions, 
instilled by Satan and fostered by the corrupting 
example of nominal believers, they remit their dili- 
gence, cease their watchfulness, lose their tender- 
ness of conscience, dally with what they call little 
sins, have no longer any sense of freedom and joy 
in prayer ; a yawning chasm, a dreadful and increas- 
ing distance, now separates their souls from God. 
They are tottering on the verge of a deep abyss ; 
at length, they commit some overt act of transgres- 
sion, gross and scandalous. Their spot is evidently 
not the spot of God's children ; they stand revealed 
to their own eyes, and to the view of all men, self- 
convicted and foul apostates. What, let us ask, is 
the origin — what the secret history of these melan- 
choly cases ? What but the absurd and unscriptural 
notion that they might dismiss all zealous concern, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 155 

when they thought their sins forgiven, their peace 
made, their salvation sure ? These are the succes- 
sive steps and stages of their downfall. First they 
grow presumptuous, then they become lukewarm, 
then they relapse into worldliness, formality, sloth, 
and death ! There is no better test of true piety, 
than that it continues to the end, and grows to the 
last. The promise is to such, and to such only. 
The principle of piety, when genuine, is permanent 
and progressive. It is diffusive, like light ; it is 
pervasive, like leaven. Accordingly, we are ex- 
horted to grow in grace and in the knowledge of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 

The whole man in his thoughts, feelings, speech, 
conduct, objects, and interests, is to be pervaded 
and purified by the gospel. A true faith works at 
once, equally, and in all directions ; in its nature, 
it is impartial ; in its sphere, universal. It spreads 
through the whole mass. Other images are employed 
in Scripture to indicate the same general truth. 
Sometimes the gospel is represented under the 
image of leaven, diffusing itself through all the 
faculties of the soul ; sometimes as a principle of 
life, giving rise to a spontaneous and symmetrical 
development. A normal and healthy growth implies 
a uniform expansion, a proportioned increase. This, 
we see in the graceful flower, its stalk swelling, its 
verdant branches putting forth tender buds, which 
in their time unfold in " the bright consummate 
flower.' ' Thus, true piety, like leaven, spreads its 



156 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

sanctifying and salutary forces through all the 
mind, through all the man. It induces a regular 
and harmonious development of all the graces of 
the Spirit. It spares no vice, however pleasing and 
prevalent, however deep-seated and constitutional. 
It will not do for the passionate man, after he 
becomes a Christian, to excuse his unchristian out- 
breaks on the ground that his is a constitutional 
infirmity, a besetting sin. The faithful commander 
doubly fortifies the w r eak point, and places his most 
trusty sentinel at the post most liable to surprise 
and assault. " Wherefore, seeing we are also com- 
passed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let 
us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth 
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the 
race that is set before us. ,, Heb. xii. 1. 

It is then not less the command of God, than the 
dictate of reason, to guard with special vigilance 
against our besetting sins. If our religion be not 
thus impartial, comprehensive, and harmonious, it 
is not genuine, scriptural, saving. A single leak 
neglected may sink a ship ; and a single sin in- 
dulged may damn a soul. The earnest and elevated 
believer is perpetually surrounded by a sense of 
duty, by the conscious presence of God, like an all- 
embracing atmosphere. 

All the events of life may be made conducive to 
this leavening process ; health and sickness, wealth 
and poverty, shame and honour, life and death, 
every dispensation of Providence, and every emotion 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 157 

of the heart. "All things work together for 
good to them that love God, to them that are the 
called according to his purpose. All things are 
yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." 
Even our very sins may instruct us, may be made 
the instruments under God of teaching us a truer 
and deeper self-knowledge, of breeding within us a 
purer and more perfect humility, of making us more 
distrustful of our own imagined strength and holi- 
ness, of leading us to put our trust more simply in 
the all-sufficing grace of the Lord Jesus. Let not 
those therefore, who have fallen into open sin, and 
so brought dread and darkness on their own souls, 
and scorn on the holy name by which they were 
called, fall into despair. Satan would drive you to 
despair, but Christ calls you to repentance. Your 
only hope is in the recovering, pardoning grace of 
your injured, but still forgiving Father. Let your 
instant, incessant, and only appeal be to his mercy 
in Christ. Zech. xii. 10; Hosea xiv. 4-7. "Let 
your eyes look upon me whom you have pierced/' 
says our loving, bleeding Saviour, " and mourn for 
him as one mourneth for his only son, and be in 
bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his 
firstborn. Take with you words, and turn to the 
Lord ; say unto him, Take away all iniquity and 
receive us graciously, so will we render the calves 
of our lips :" Then will he turn and say unto you, 
"I will heal their backsliding, I will love them 

freely, for mine anger is turned away from him. I 
14 



158 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

will be as the dew unto Israel ; he shall grow as the 
lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. They 
that dwell under his shadow shall return ; they 
shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine ; the 
scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon/ ' 

As the thoughts, the dispositions, the habits, the 
spirit, and life of the individual are to be leavened 
by the gospel, so the beliefs, the literature, the laws, 
the maxims, the manners, the principles, and the 
polity of nations, of the race, are all to be leavened 
in like manner. And the process is indicated in 
the leaven. It is to be silent, gradual, insensible, 
communicated. It is to be a real leavening. It is 
to spread from man to man ; from land to land. 
The race is indeed a unit — as the individual is one ; 
as the family is one ; as the nation is one. We are 
made of one blood. We are redeemed by one Sav- 
iour. We are sanctified by one Spirit. We have 
all one Father. We look forward with glad hearts 
to one heaven. One of the race influences each ; 
each of the race influences all. The injury I do 
myself, does not, cannot terminate with me. The 
saying so common among young men, "No man's 
enemy but his own," is a solecism, an absurdity, 
an impossibility. The man who is his own enemy 
is the enemy of the whole human race, just so far. 
He defrauds all whom he might have served: he 
injures by his death all whom he might have bene- 
fitted by his life. And his bad example may be all 
the more extensive, the more infectious, and the 



YOUNa MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 159 

more mischievous if it gain currency and colour 
from accidental association with certain amiable and 
pleasing qualities, which are often found in the self- 
indulgent voluptuary. Of whatsoever he may seek 
to persuade himself, however he may be regarded 
by others, he is a genuine Ishmael ; his hand is 
against every man. There is a trembling, wide- 
spread sensibility in the soul of man. The blow 
that strikes one wounds all men through all time. 
This is true of wickedness and of wicked men ; pre- 
eminently true is it of moral goodness and of good 
men. That is only a half truth then, which Shak- 
speare utters when he says, 

The evil that men do lives after them, 
The good is oft interred with their bones. 

In the providence of God, on the principle of 
accountability, neither the evil nor the good will 
ever cease to live and act and spread ; neither 
the good nor the evil is interred with our bones. 
Each is vital, eternal, on earth, and in other worlds. 
Our influence for good or evil is boundless in dura- 
tion and degree. It is fraught with a perpetual life. 
It is essentially, infinitely, eternally reproductive. 

Powers depart ; 
Possessions vanish and opinions change, 
And passions hold a fluctuating seat ; 
But by the storms of circumstance unshaken, 
And subject neither to eclipse nor wave, 
Duty exists — immutably survive, 
For our support, the measures and the forms, 



160 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 



Which an abstract intelligence supplies, 

Whose kingdom is, where time and space are not. 

God calls us to take part in a great work, in a 
great warfare; the accomplishment of many an 
ancient and glorious prophecy ; the application to 
ourselves and others of the gracious and saving 
atonement ; the diffusion of the gospel and the con- 
version of the world. Will you hearken? Will you 
do it? Christ has done his part. His work is 
finished and accepted. The Spirit of grace, the 
purchase of the Son, and the promise of the Father 
is ready to do his part. Will you do yours ? Will 
you be co-workers with God ? Will you seek to win 
souls ? Will you pray, labour, suffer sacrifice in this 
holy cause, for this grand object? The importance 
of human action cannot be exaggerated, cannot be 
expressed, and the corresponding importance of a 
sound judgment, of a thoughtful mind, above all, of 
a conscience enlightened and controlled by the truth 
and Spirit of God. It is awe-inspiring to reflect 
upon the permanence, still more the propagation, 
of influence. The universe is a vast whispering 
gallery, wherein the least and lowest accent of truth, 
of faith, of prayer, of love, is no sooner uttered than 
it is taken up and repeated and reverberated every- 
where and for ever. 

The sin of Adam as our natural and our federal 
head, was in several respects peculiar, both as im- 
puted and as transmitted; but every man's sin 
spreads abroad and afar disease, corruption, wretch- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 161 

edness, and death, in his own immediate circle, first 
and worst; then, in ever-widening circles, till it 
reaches the last man and the last moment; then, 
surviving the dissolution of all material things, it 
" spreads undivided," "operates unspent," through 
the illimitable ages of eternity. 

That is a sublime passage in which Christ is re- 
presented as mounted on a white horse, going forth 
conquering and to conquer. It is a truly delightful 
thing to anticipate the gradual spread of the king- 
dom, which is not of this world, till in successive 
waves of light it sweeps over and gladdens and 
glorifies all lands, 

" Till like a sea of glory, 
It spreads from pole to pole," 

till with its heavenly power it pervades all the 
thoughts, interests, duties, and enjoyments of men. 
It is sin that embitters human hearts and human 
life. Every institution of society might remain un- 
changed, the elements rage with their accustomed 
fury, the ground abide under the curse as of old, 
and yet what a mighty, what an instant, what a 
happy change would take place, if the heart of 
every man were suddenly to be imbued with the re- 
generating and sanctifying grace of the gospel! 
How would a peace, deep, delicious, calm, and pure 
as the heavens, descend into the soul ! What blessed- 
ness past all comprehension would at once drop as 
the rain and distil as the dew on hearts now " dry 
as summer dust!" What a beauty would be re- 
14* 



162 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

fleeted back from the beaming and blissful spirit on 
the unconscious world around us ! and how would 
heaven and earth unite in harmony and praise! 
The reason why the regeneration of the world, its 
restoration to God, is so long delayed, is that Chris- 
tians, through whose willing agency this happy con- 
summation is to be effected, acquiesce in its present 
character and state, and intercede, and strive, and 
sigh so little, for a better and a brighter dispensa- 
tion. 

Ultimately, we know all will be leavened, but now 
much remains to be done. Look at literature, laws, 
art, science, social life. How far are all these from 
the pure and heavenly spirit of the gospel ! Sup- 
pose all these animated and informed with the 
grace and glory of the sacred Scriptures, how raised, 
how radiant would they be ! how resplendent with 
a beauty akin to that which rested on the fresh, un- 
fallen creation! 

Unfaithful as the church has been, still it should 
not be forgotten, that much has been accomplished 
already by the leavening power of the gospel. There 
are two classes of men of entirely opposite character, 
and impelled by directly opposite motives, who are 
prone to underrate the actual results of religious 
agencies. The first is the humble and zealous 
Christian, dismayed at the wickedness which still 
abounds in all places, in all persons, and especially in 
himself; despondent because so much less has been 
even attempted than his ardent and eager benevo- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 163 

lence can conceive of, and burns to see accomplished. 
The other is the smiling infidel, who can coldly and 
proudly point to the ignorance and vice yet re- 
maining in Christian communities, in Christian men, 
and on the untrodden wastes of heathendom, and 
ask, Where is the promise of his coming, what the 
fruit of eighteen centuries of teaching and effort?* 
Where are the triumphs of the gospel, where its 
trophies and monuments ? We answer, If you seek 
its monuments, look around you; compare even 
yourself with your bloody pagan ancestors, the 
laws, the institutions, the literature, the moral and 
social state of modern Europe and the United States, 
with any part of the world and any period of the 
world before the advent of our Lord. 

Whatever tends to exalt the spiritual part of 
man, to give the interests of the soul and of eternity 
prominence and dignity, as contrasted with the 
fugitive interests of time and of the perishable body, 
tends to the real honour of human nature. Of all 
things it is most ennobling to sacrifice material to 
spiritual interests. Hence the pre-eminent gran- 
deur of the missionary enterprise, looked at from 
the lowest ground of contemplation. The commis- 
sion of our Lord to his apostles, in which alone the 
church proceeds in all her plans to evangelize the 
nations, comprehends the interests of all the world. 
We should, therefore, pray and labour for the speedy 
conversion of all nations, because the longer that 
* Westminster Review, et id omne geuns. 



164 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

"blessed consummation is deferred, the more genera- 
tions will go down to the grave without the know- 
ledge of the only Saviour. The same Christian 
spirit which impels a man to go as a missionary to 
foreign lands, should induce him to use every effort 
to instruct the ignorant, awaken the careless, re- 
claim the erring, and save the lost around him. 
Alas ! that we should be so prone to defer service ! 
When shall we learn to do the work of the day in 
its season, to embrace with prompt alacrity every 
opportunity of doing good to the perishing souls of 
our fellow-men? 

The necessity in nature for the doctrines of grace, 
the ground in reason and philosophy for the evan- 
gelical doctrine of spiritual regeneration is made 
clear when we consider the pervasive and assimilat- 
ing quality of the Christian faith. " Except a 
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
heaven," is the personal testimony of the Lord Jesus, 
and it is a conclusion which all human experience, 
so far as it can be ascertained from the historical 
record of the characters and tendencies of our fal- 
len race, amply confirms. The efforts which indi- 
vidual men of the better order have made to root 
out the evil affections of their nature, and raise 
their souls above sordid and sensual desires, have 
been lamentably vain ; even morality, in its outward 
form and garb, has never appeared among any 
pagan people. The character of the most cultivated 
nations of profane antiquity was notoriously stained 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 165 

with the most detestable vices. Their most admired 
authors record of themselves with utter unconscious- 
ness of wrong, or with visible elation of spirit, what 
cannot now be read without a blush. Nothing but 
the grace of God is stronger than human corruption. 
All the maxims of men, all the exhortations of men, 
all the devices of men, are vain to sanctify the soul. 
Thy blood, eternal Saviour, alone cleanseth us from 
all sin ! Let me then urge all who know that they 
are unregenerate sinners, to betake themselves 
without delay to the Lamb of God, that taketh 
away the sin of the world. Trust in his atoning 
blood for pardon and peace. Humbly and with all 
your hearts cry to God, for the gracious Spirit of 
his Son to sanctify and save you. 

There is no more amiable and majestic aspect of 
the church of the living God, than that which she 
sustains in her ordained and historic relation to the 
missionary enterprise. It pertains to the very 
essence of piety in an individual or a community to 
be communicative, to diffuse itself. When Andrew 
had found the Saviour, he made haste to tell Peter, 
and he Nathanael. The faith of God, the love of 
Christ, is a fire in the bones. It cannot be sup- 
pressed ; it cannot be concealed ; it cannot be con- 
fined; it will discover itself; it will propagate 
itself. By its very charter, the church of the 
Lord Jesus Christ is a missionary institution. If it 
cease to make progress, it ceases to be fruitful, to 
be strong, to be pure. Like the pool of Bethesda, 



166 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

its waters must be agitated, to exert their healing 
virtue. Historically regarded, the purity and vigour 
of the church are nearly convertible terms. In the 
ages in which she has been most holy in doctrine, 
in life, and in spirit, she has made most extensive 
and glorious progress. Look at her during the 
apostolic period, magnificently endowed with truth 
and grace, majestic, free, full of inward and irre- 
pressible life, going forth to the spiritual conquest 
of the world, with nothing but the Shepherd's sling 
and stone, but guided by Jehovah and girt about 
with his invincible strength, therefore "fair as the 
moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with 
banners.' ' The energies of the church were given 
her for expansion, for conflict, for victory. She 
has gone forth on the high enterprise of the world's 
subjugation, and she cannot stop in her onward 
march, or turn aside from her heaven-appointed 
task. Go on then, ye conquering legions of the 
Prince of Peace ! Let no region of the habitable 
earth be barbarous enough or cruel enough to daunt 
your courageous mind ! Let no opposition appal ! 
No disappointment depress you ! Know that the 
earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, and that 
in due time all flesh shall see his salvation. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 167 



LECTURE VIII. 

CHRIST, THE BURDEN OF PROPHECY. 

There are many distinct lines of argument, 
•which terminate in a common conclusion, the truth 
of the gospel system. The exuberance and variety 
of these separate sources of conviction are suited to 
the infinite fulness of God, who hath replenished 
the material world with his riches, and adapted the 
evidences of the faith to the peculiar tastes, tem- 
pers, and intellectual habitudes of different men. 
Each of these sources of proof is independent of all 
the rest, and sufficient in itself alone. 

To some, the argument which carries conviction, 
is the triumphant progress of the Christian faith, 
against early organized and incessant opposition 
from rival religions. Springing up among a people, 
naturally and universally detested by gentile na- 
tions, unsocial in their habits, of peculiar institu- 
tions, religiously segregated from the rest of man- 
kind, in the decline of their political power and 
national prosperity ; in fact, a subject race, with 
no advantages arising from the natural abilities, the 



1G8 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

eloquence, the wealth, or the reputation of its ear- 
liest and most successful advocates, who were de- 
spised Galilean fishermen, unlearned, and laymen;* 
yet did this faith, mighty through God, triumph 
over the superstition of the people and the pride of 
the philosophers, the tumultuous outbreaks of the 
infuriated rabble, and the persecuting edicts of hos- 
tile princes — until at length, in the person of Con- 
stantine, it ascended the throne of the Caesars. 

The miracles recorded in Scripture, performed in 
the presence of sagacious and hostile witnesses, 
subjected to keen scrutiny and owned to be super- 
natural, occurring at intervals of four thousand 
years, manifest in the marvellous communications 
of God, with the Patriarchs, in the wonders wrought 
from the time of Moses to the time of Christ, and 
in the amazing succession of signs and mighty 
deeds, which continued until the close of the Apos- 
tolic age — these constitute an irrefragable argument 
of the divine origin of the religious system, in de- 
monstration of which they are alleged. 

Another species of proof, running back to the fall 
of man, and stretching onward to the second advent of 
Christ, when he shall come in the clouds of heaven, 
with the voice of the Archangel and the trump of 
God, to judge the quick and the dead, consists of 
prophecies, commensurate in duration with the 
history of apostate man, embracing an infinite 

*Acts iv. 13. 'Ayp&nixciToi teal iditirai. See ver. 9. A. Alex- 
ander, in loco. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 169 

variety of minute particulars, which no human fore- 
sight could possibly anticipate or provide for, de- 
pending for their fulfilment not less on the agency 
of enemies than of friends, boldly committing 
the credit of their authors to the combinations and 
counsels of men widely scattered over the earth, and 
who were not even to be born for many generations 
— this species of proof which so clearly implies the 
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, is 
peculiarly adapted to impress another class of minds. 
Each of these arguments is entirely distinct from 
the other, and a clear addition to the other. We 
may consider them alone, and then each will have 
its separate weight, or we may consider them toge- 
ther, and then they will strike the mind with their 
collective and united force. 

However we may regard the argument from 
prophecy, for the truth and divinity of our religion, 
there can be no question that the Lord Jesus him- 
self attributed the utmost importance to it. After 
his glorious resurrection, we find him pointing out 
to his disconsolate disciples, on their way to Em- 
maus, the exact agreement between the prediction 
and the event, and showing the moral necessity 
for his sufferings, which existed in the purpose and 
prophecy of God. " And beginning at Moses and 
all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the 
Scriptures the things concerning himself/ ' Luke 
xxiv. 27-44. And he said unto them, " These are 

the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet 
15 



170 

with you, that all things must be fulfilled which 
were written, in the law of Moses, and in the pro- 
phets^ and in the Psalms concerning me." 

No man can read the Scriptures attentively, with- 
out remarking how solicitous the sacred writers are 
to show this agreement on every occasion. Hence, 
the expression so often used, " that the Scriptures 
might be fulfilled." Criminal thoughtlessness alone 
could induce any person to overlook the immense 
weight of the circumstance, on which they so strong- 
ly and so often insist. Prophecies, which but for 
their singular and exact fulfilment might have es- 
caped notice altogether, are brought forward promi- 
nently to view ; and so the faith of every intelligent 
Christian is powerfully confirmed. 

Christ, considered as the burden and fulfiller of 
prophecy, presents the grandest subject on which 
the mind of man can be fixed. The wildest excur- 
sions of fancy, the most extravagant dreams of 
romance, are not half so amazing. It carries us 
back to that awful moment, when the guilty pair 
stood before their offended Maker, and the predes- 
tined Redeemer of a lost world was obscurely pro- 
mised. It comprehends every intervening moment 
and each successive prophet, from that period till 
the day and person of Malachi. It conducts us to 
the magnificent courts of David and Solomon, and 
we see the splendours of Jerusalem, when she re- 
joiced in the wealth of tributary kings. Again, we 
wander in sadness by the waters of Babylon, and 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 171 

mingle our tears with those of the captive daughter 
of Zion. We hear Moses the man of God, whom 
the Jews suppose to have enjoyed more direct and 
intimate intercourse with Jehovah, than any other 
of the sons of men was ever favoured with, pro- 
mising that the Lord would raise up of their bre- 
thren a prophet like unto himself. We behold 
men of the highest dignity, like Isaiah and Daniel, 
concurring in testimony w T ith herdsmen, like Amos, 
and all showing what must shortly be. 

Now it is the multiplicity and minuteness of these 
testimonies, to which I wish to direct attention ; for 
it is in this particular point of view that the argu- 
ment appears to me most complete and conclusive. It 
is not the meeting of a single prediction in Christ. 
It is not the meeting of several. It is not the 
meeting of many. It is the meeting of all these 
predictions, which assures us that Jesus is indeed 
the Messiah of God. In no one prophecy, in no 
one prophet, shall we find a full description of Christ 
and of Christianity. The successive revelations 
which were made sometimes to settle the minds of 
the doubtful and timid shaken by some alarming 
emergency in the commonwealth, the spiritual edu- 
cation of the chosen race, the manifold exigencies 
arising in the eventful history of the Jewish people, 
above all the clearer development of advancing time, 
forbade it. Before the rising of the Sun of right- 
eousness in his unveiled glory, these prophetic 
teachers heralded his advent. But the general and 



172 

scattered lustre which was diffused through them as 
a body, was collected in his divine person and shone 
forth with combined and concentrated beauty. Or 
to change the figure: no one prophet gives us a 
complete picture of Christianity or of Christ ; no 
single picture could comprehend the multiplex and 
many-sided subject. We should rather look upon 
the prophets as sketchers of particular incidents 
and events, and upon prophecy itself as a gallery of 
paintings. Thus does prophecy prove itself to be 
from God ; not because it comes as a finished 
picture done at one time or by one hand. It is 
rather a succession of pictures, executed at different 
times and by different hands. One presents a par- 
ticular scene, incident, or object, as his birth-place. 
Another describes his humiliation. A third beholds 
him surrounded by the ensigns of an unenvied and 
universal royalty; the kings of most distant nations 
pressing forward to do him voluntary homage, and 
nations reposing in peace under his banner, and de- 
lighting to be called by his name. 

These many and seemingly conflicting prophecies, 
uttered with the same confidence and often by the 
very same voice, all meet harmoniously in Jesus 
Christ, and assume their appropriate places in the 
history of the manifested Messiah. Is it wonderful, 
when we remember the complex and apparently 
discordant elements, which entered into the pro- 
phetic conception of Christ, that the prophets them- 
selves should be represented as in amazement and 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 173 

searching with intense solicitude and unwearied 
assiduity, " what or what manner of time the Spirit 
of Christ which was in them did signify, when it 
testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the 
glory which should follow." 1 Peter i. 11. The 
wisdom and truth of that eternal Spirit, by whom 
these holy men were moved, could, and he alone 
could, so variously and justly describe Him, who in 
the fulness of time was to assume our nature and 
bear our sins. 

Suppose a man or set of men to describe the suc- 
cessive periods and passages in the life of Napoleon. 
One might point to his birth-place on the island of 
Corsica. Another view him as a cadet at the 
military school at Brienne. A third describe his 
elevation to the command of the army of Italy. A 
fourth sketch him amid the sands of Egypt. A fifth, 
as emperor. A sixth, during the disastrous expedi- 
tion to Russia. A seventh, amid the anxieties and 
overthrow at Waterloo. And the last, closing "this 
strange eventful history," might describe his banish- 
ment and death on the lone isle of St. Helena. No 
one historian could present the whole at a single 
view; and if he could, that view would be neither 
correct nor complete. Napoleon was not indeed the 
same man at these several periods. It is a common 
but egregious error, to form our conceptions of 
a man's character, from a survey of his finished 
career, and transfer this idea to any previous period 
of his history. But how unphilosophical, how de- 
15* 



174 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

lusive such a course I How many and often insig- 
nificant apparently, and even invisible altogether, 
the influences and events, which act upon character 
and determine our destinies ! 

How do our views change with circumstances and 
expand with success ! There are those, who believe 
that Oliver Cromwell had the protectorate or the 
crown in view, when he first drew the sword against 
Charles the first. The same men may believe that 
the topmost height of his imperial elevation was 
clearly in the eye of Napoleon, from the beginning 
of his career ; but such persons can know but little 
of human nature and of human life. In the rise of 
an ambitious man, as in the aspect of nature, 

" Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise." 

This is the true history of both Cromwell and 
Napoleon. They could not stop midway in their 
career of greatness. They could not pause without 
receding. To ascend higher was a necessity of 
their position. No more could they have ventured 
to anticipate at first their ultimate elevation. It 
had been, not sagacity, but madness, in either of 
these extraordinary men, to have looked forward to 
the supreme headship of affairs, when the one was 
a plain country gentleman and the other a poor and 
obscure adventurer. The same thing is more con- 
spicuously true of Mohammed. It is true of all 
men, who from obscure beginnings " achieve great- 
ness.' ' Their views change with their circumstances, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 175 

and they rise in their aspirations and demands as 
they increase in power. Hence it happens that we 
must see them not at one time, if we would estimate 
them aright, but view them at each successive 
period, and take a comprehensive survey of their 
whole lives. 

A similar course must be adopted by the student 
of prophecy. For prophecy contemplates events 
before they take place, as history does after. It is 
the part of the historian to revive the past, of the 
prophet to reveal the future. The man who would 
have an adequate idea of the wonderful variety, 
completeness, and minuteness of the evidence arising 
from the prophetic descriptions of Christ and his 
kingdom, must not fix his mind on any one prophecy 
or picture, to the exclusion of the rest ; but consider 
each in its turn. To gaze upon this great body of 
prophecy is indeed like the attempt to survey the 
whole of a globe at a glance. While we examine 
one country, or even one hemisphere, we are prone 
to forget the corresponding portion, equally extended 
and equally admirable. Thus while fascinated with 
the minute accuracy and pathetic beauty, with which 
our Redeemer's sufferings are " painted out and de- 
scribed,' ' we may lose sight, for the time, of the 
equally impressive and instructive portions, which 
exhibit the holy and peaceful nature of his kingdom, 
or those equally authentic and precious, which pro- 
mise its perpetual increase and universal prevalence. 

" To him give all the prophets witness.' ' In the 



176 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

promise to Abraham it is said, " In thy seed shall 
all the nations of the earth be blessed ;" Gen. xxii. 
18. And how beautifully was this fulfilled when 
the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gen- 
tile was broken down, and our risen Lord gave to 
his church her catholic commission, " Go ye into all 
the world and preach the gospel to every creature!'' 
Mark xvi. 15 ; and what a glorious fulfilment yet 
awaits it, when the new song of thanksgiving and 
triumph shall be sung : " And every creature which 
is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, 
and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them 
shall be heard saying, Blessing and honour and 
glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the 
throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever!" 
Rev. v. 13. And how does history sustain the next 
prophecy ! " The sceptre shall not depart from 
Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet, till 
Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the gathering of 
the people be !" Comparing the prophecy with the 
fact, we find that the tribe of Judah continued as a 
people and possessed a government until the 
Messiah, and that shortly after, it lost its dominion 
and separate existence in the destruction of Jerusalem. 
In the Psalms, we have prophetic descriptions of 
Christ, alike in his glory and in his abasement. 
As early as the second psalm, the Father is repre- 
sented as laughing in security and derision, at the 
impotent attempts of the kings of the earth, con- 
federate against him, exalting him upon his holy 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 177 

hill of Zion, publicly proclaiming him the Son of 
God and heir of the uttermost parts of the earth, 
as dashing his enemies in pieces, and blessing all 
those who put their trust in him. In the forty-fifth, 
he is described as fairer than the children of men, 
abounding in grace, a mighty conqueror, glorious 
and majestic, prosperous in his enterprises, con- 
cerned for the cause of truth, meekness, and right- 
eousness, and as its invincible champion, as having 
an eternal throne and a righteous sceptre, anointed 
above others, with the oil of gladness, rejoicing in 
rich and odorous garments, and attended by the 
Queen in gold of Ophir. His church is then de- 
scribed as holy and beautiful and beloved, the 
cherished inmate of the King's palace, adorned in 
fine raiment of needlework, and as the finishing 
touch it is added that the King's name is everlast- 
ing. In the seventy-second, the same royal per- 
sonage is described as both compassionate and just, 
the distinctive characteristic of his kingdom is that 
it is a kingdom of peace, as of his person that he is 
the Prince of Peace ; his dominion is to be from sea 
to sea, the dwellers in the utmost wilderness are to 
bow before him, the most distant kings to bring 
him presents, in token of friendship and subjection. 
He is to be known as the friend of the poor and 
needy, and of him that hath no helper, and his name 
is to endure for ever. The hundred and tenth 
celebrates his deity and priesthood. All his enemies 
are to be subdued. His people are to be made 



178 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

willing in the day of his power ; and his converts 
are to be numerous and resplendent as the drops of 
morning dew. In the prophecies already recited, 
the glory of the church is incidentally connected 
with that of her King. But it is more prominently 
set forth by Isaiah. The mountain of the Lord's 
house is to be established in the top of the moun- 
tains and exalted above the hills, and all nations 
are to flow into it. Isa. ii. 2. In the ninth chapter, 
we have a magnificent description of the person 
of Christ, in his human and divine natures.* 

The passages which we have been considering 
present our Saviour under the character of an illus- 
trious Prince and Ruler. There are others, however, 

* The prophetic images, employed to illustrate the tri- 
umphant aspect of the Redeemer's kingdom, are well 
combined and exhibited in Pope's spirited verse : 

Rapt into future times the bard begun, 
A Virgin shall conceive, a Virgin bear a son ; 
From Jesse's root behold a branch arise, 
Whose sacred flower with fragrance tills the skies 

Rise crowned with light, imperial Salem rise ! 
Exalt thy towery head and lift thy eyes ! 
See barbarous nations at thy gates attend, 
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend. 

See thy bright altars thronged with prostrate kings, 
And heaped with products of Sabean springs ! 
For thee Idumea's spicy forests blow, 
And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 179 

equally descriptive, in which he is portrayed as 
poor, despised, and afflicted. One part of the pro- 
phetic portrait is not more clearly his than the 
other, and it is the concurrence in one person of 
these seemingly incompatible attributes, that estab- 
lishes the truth of the Christian religion. We find 
these apparently conflicting statements very near 
to one another, and often the same writer will pass 
suddenly, not to say abruptly, from one to another. 
But that w T hich constituted an impediment to the 
faith of those who studied the prophecies before 
their fulfilment, is a strong confirmation of the faith 
of those, living after the incarnation of Christ and 
the organization of the church. I shall of course be 
unable to go over the whole body of this extended 
testimony minutely ; all that I can hope to do, and 
all that I shall even attempt, will be merely to in- 
dicate the argument, and refer to some of the most 
important passages which sustain it. 

The twenty-second Psalm opens with those me- 
morable words, which our Saviour uttered on the 
cross, expressive of the most mysterious and awful 
agonies. They can never be heard or pondered by 
any pious heart, without sympathy and wonder ; 
and the record of the undeserved and unparalleled 
sufferings of the Lamb of God should not only make 
us abhor the sins which occasioned them, but should 
arm us to bear with unshaken constancy, our com- 
paratively light afflictions. " My God ! my God ! 
why hast thou forsaken me?" was the prophetic and 



180 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

actual outcry, extorted by imputed guilt. The 
remainder of the Psalm is in a similar strain of 
sorrow, and in the minuteness of its prophecies, and 
in their exact fulfilment, in the recorded history of 
Christ, it must be regarded as one of the most im- 
portant portions of the Old Testament. There are 
passages in the prophets, above all in Isaiah, which 
a tender-hearted Christian can scarcely read with- 
out weeping. The heart is softened by the consi- 
deration of what shame and grief were able to 
wring from the constant soul of our Saviour. In 
the fiftieth chapter of Isaiah, we find him using the 
following language: "I gave my back to the smit- 
ers, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the 
hair ; I hid not my face from shame and spitting." 
The fifty-third chapter of this prophet is less like 
a prediction, than a historical narrative. It is, per- 
haps, the clearest and most complete prophecy of 
Christ, in all the Old Testament. The nature and 
object of his sufferings, as well as their fearful inten- 
sity, are there unfolded. His want of outward at- 
tractions, his lowliness and rejection, his extreme ago- 
nies, their vicarious purpose, his lamb-like meekness 
and resignation, the cruel injustice shown him 
throughout, together with the most singular circum- 
stances attending his death, such as the guilt of 
those crucified with him, and the splendour of his 
tomb, the design of the Father in what he endured, 
and his glorious reward, — all these are detailed with 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 181 

the minute fidelity, not of a historian merely, but 
of an eye-witness. 

We have seen what a striking contrariety there is 
in the prophecies relating to Christ ; and yet, how 
exactly they are all fulfilled in his character and 
kingdom, his person and work. It is perfectly 
evident, that of the millions of men who have lived, 
renowned and obscure, Jew and Gentile, no other 
will correspond to all the parts of this prophetic 
picture. Of all these, there is no other, whose life 
history will answer to the successive pictures, pre- 
sented by the ancient prophets. On the other 
hand, it is not less evident, that in him, the corres- 
pondence, in all points, is complete. The prophe- 
cies in the Old Testament, touching the promised 
Messiah, are found on comparison to tally exactly 
with the testimony of the New Testament, concern- 
the historic Jesus. The fact is undeniable, the 
conclusion irresistible. The Messiah of the Old 
Testament is the Christ of the New. Then are 
both Testaments given by inspiration of God. Then 
is the question, "What think ye of Christ ?" a 
question of transcendent moment to every son of 
Adam. Then are the immortal destinies of every 
accountable human being absolutely dependent on 
the relations which he sustains, to the only Mediator 
between God and men — the man Christ Jesus. 
Then the inquiry, What must I, a condemned and 
helpless sinner, do to be saved ? admits demonstra- 
bly of only one answer, " Believe in the Lord Jesus 
16 



182 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

Christ I" How adorable is the wisdom of God, and 
how clear the divine inspiration of his prophets! 
How do the separate rays of divine truth blend and 
shine in the cross of our Redeemer ! How glorious 
are the attributes of God, providentially illustrated 
in the events of the life of Christ, considered in 
their indivisible connection with the prophecies 
which had gone before ! How copious and clear is 
the proof of our holy religion, and how worthy of all 
acceptation the faith of the gospel ! 

From the ignorance, which the Jews evinced of 
the real meaning of their own prophecies, and their 
malignant rejection of their own Messiah, we may 
learn the disastrous effect of religious prejudice. If 
in the whole range of thought there be one subject, 
in regard to which, it becomes men to deal honestly 
with themselves, and obey the truth, however unex- 
pected and unwelcome, that subject is religion. In 
relation to this, as to every thing else, the views 
which we adopt do not alter the real facts. Truth 
has an objective reality, an independent subsistence. 
It is wholly unaffected by our belief or unbelief. 
A man may suppose that he is taking wholesome 
food or healing medicine, but if through some sad 
mistake, he should swallow arsenic, the drug is not 
the less likely to be fatal. A man may go to law, 
under the strongest conviction that his case is per- 
fectly just, and needs only to be fully stated to be 
instantly admitted, and he may find, that the very 
law on which he reckoned is directly against him. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 183 

A man may invest all his substance in a particular 
species of merchandise, anticipating brilliant and 
certain success, and yet want and ruin come upon 
him like an armed man. Truth, natural or re- 
vealed, scientific or religious, will not bend to our 
apprehensions ; our apprehensions must bend to the 
truth. The great facts of astronomy, of geogra- 
phy, of chemistry, — we may be ignorant of them, w T e 
may deny them, but still they remain firmly fixed 
as the ancient heavens or the everlasting hills. The 
secret influences of Pleiades, the secret agencies 
of nature, the achievements of human art, the crea- 
tions of almighty power, are not suspended on our 
knowledge or belief. It is not the office of faith to 
create, but accept revealed truth. It is like light. 
It bears the same relation to spiritual things that 
light does to natural. We might conceive the world 
to contain all the widely diversified objects, with 
which it is so richly replenished, and at the same 
time so shrouded in a universal pall of darkness, as 
to be impenetrably hidden from every eye. Now 
only conceive the sun to arise suddenly, in all his 
strength and glory ; no change might pass upon a 
single object, and yet every thing from darkness 
would rise into visibility. In like manner, faith 
makes no change whatever in the truths of religion, 
or in their relation to ourselves, but in our appre- 
hension of them. It is, indeed, " the master-light 
of all our seeing." It is something more than the 
light by which we see. It at once supplies the 



184 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

element and restores the organ of vision. The real 
difficulty, in the case of the Jews, was no obscurity 
in the revelation, but the veil upon their hearts in 
the reading of the Old Testament, 2 Cor. iii. 13-16, 
and when that veil shall be removed by the finger of 
God, they will gladly recognize the proper glory of the 
long-expected Messiah, the only begotten of the 
Father. 

It is the more necessary to guard young men 
against the disastrous effects of religious error, be- 
cause among the most prevalent and pernicious is 
that which supposes that God holds us responsible 
for the sincerity, but not for the soundness of our 
religious convictions. If error, on this subject of 
all the most important, arose simply from weakness 
of mind, then it is conceded that we should not be 
held responsible, as idiots and madmen are not ac- 
countable for involuntary ignorance or inevitable 
error. But it springs mainly from aversion to the 
truth. The corruption of the heart spreads a dark 
cloud over the pages of the inspired word, which 
otherwise would be effulgent with the light of heaven. 
The persistent rejection of certain truths involves 
a wicked and punishable blindness. The prejudice 
which led the unbelieving Jews to cast off and cru- 
cify the Lord of glory was unutterably wicked, 
because the evidence, not merely of his personal 
innocence, but of his divine glory, was so accessible, 
perspicuous, and complete. It must have been self- 
evident to every unbiassed hearer of his words of 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 185 

grace and truth, to every dispassionate witness of 
his works of power and love, that he was a Teacher 
come from God, that this was of a truth that Pro- 
phet that should come into the world, able also to 
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by 
him. 

The peculiar nature of the Christian evidences 
affords a signal illustration of the divine perfections, 
especially of the wisdom and goodness of God, and a 
delicate test of human character. They are for 
the most part moral, and demand for their apprecia- 
tion not so much intellectual strength and culture, 
as right moral dispositions. From their very nature 
they can be understood only by such as come to 
the consideration of them with candour, humility, 
reverence, and love of truth. To receive them in 
simplicity and joy of heart, there must be that inward 
and spiritual preparation of which the Holy Ghost 
is the author. The confidence of men, therefore, in 
their plenary and conclusive character, may vary, 
and in experience is found to vary, with the presence 
or absence, the strength or weakness, of such dis- 
positions. The internal and experimental evidences 
of Christianity are those on which the soul reposes 
with most unshaken trust, in which the soul rejoices 
with most ineffable delight. No accumulation of 
outward evidence can be so impressive, no logical de- 
monstration so convincing, as the direct spiritual 
apprehension of divine truth in its divine beauty. 

The truth contained in the Scriptures is intuitively 
16* 



186 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

recognized as the source, the standard, and the sum 
of spiritual excellence. We feel constrained to 
acknowledge the divinity of the Christian system, 
because it bears the image and superscription of 
God. There is a reigning spirit of holiness and 
beauty, of truth and power, in the word of God 
which, obviously and infinitely, transcends any thing 
of man's device ; and the conscience responds to the 
voice of its eternal and only Sovereign speaking to it 
from the inviolable sanctuary wherein he dwells, and 
with the awe-stricken disciple exclaims, " My Lord 
and my God !" The words of Jesus are not only 
superior to those of any mere human teacher, in the 
depth of their spiritual significance and in the 
strength of their spiritual sanctions ; they are 
altogether of another kind ; they belong to another 
sphere ; they address another sense. Where the 
word of a king is there is power, and these are the 
words of the King of glory. There is no excellence 
which he does not inculcate, none which he does 
not exemplify. The noblest aspiration of the loftiest 
mind after glory and virtue, cannot rise above the 
commanded duty of every disciple of Christ. 
" Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are honest, 
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are 
pure, whatsoever things are lovely, if there be any 
virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these 
things. ,, Phil. iv. 8. 

In regard to the nature and extent of that 
control which we may and which we should ex- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 187 

ercise over our moral convictions, it is an unques- 
tionable fact of consciousness, not less than of divine 
revelation, that we cannot indeed change our 
corrupt hearts, or elicit any distinctively holy 
affection. But we can direct our minds to some 
objects rather than to others, to some considera- 
tions to the exclusion of others. We can read 
some books rather than others. We can choose 
some companions in preference to others. And 
there are corresponding emotions awakened on the 
presentation of appropriate objects, and the occur- 
rence of suitable considerations to the mind, in 
virtue of a law simple, universal, inevitable, the law 
of association. In clear addition to which, God has 
ordained a supernatural connection, between pious 
labours and spiritual blessings. 

It is true, that our nature is radically corrupted, 
and the deadliest part of our corruption is a total 
inability to recover ourselves. Still we are conscious 
of certain moral susceptibilities, which render us the 
proper subjects of redemption and the meet re- 
cipients of heavenly grace. If we can do nothing 
directly, we can do much indirectly. If, by an im- 
mediate and sovereign act of the will, we cannot 
expel vicious affections, we can discard the images 
and ideas with which the vicious affections are 
naturally associated, and the Bible, which does not 
indeed formally propound, but silently assumes and 
proceeds upon the profoundest philosophy of the 
mind, commands us not to look upon the wine when 



188 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

it is red, and not to draw nigh to the door of her 
house whose steps take hold on death. We can 
direct our minds, not to the alluring aspects under 
which the forbidden fruit may be regarded, the sinful 
gratification contemplated; but dwell upon such 
considerations as may disarm it of its perilous power, 
the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all 
unrighteousness, the mortal misery, the incalculable 
mischief, which drunkenness, adultery, false-swear- 
ing, and the love of money, have produced in other 
cases, as revealed in inspired Scripture or recorded 
in profane history. We may then reflect upon the 
hideous evil which the particular sin to which we 
are tempted or inclined is, from its very nature, 
adapted to produce, above all the dishonour done to 
God ; and exclaim with the purest of the ancient 
patriarchs, " How can I do this great wickedness 
and sin against God? Gen. xxxix. 9; Ps. li. 4. 
We may properly call to mind " in the very torrent, 
tempest, and whirlwind of passion,' ' the special ag- 
gravations of the sin arising from our peculiar circum- 
stances — age, honour, authority, family, or station. 
As many of the Jews rejected the manifested 
Messiah from prejudice ; so many stifled their con- 
victions from fear, either for their personal safety, 
their property, or reputation. The evangelist John 
mentions some who believed on him, but would not 
confess him for fear of the Jews, lest they should be 
put out of the synagogue. Jesus himself warns his 
disciples against the sinful fear of men. Nothing 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 189 

is to be feared so much as fear, as there is no des- 
potism so great and so harsh : none but the brave 
man can be free, and none but the good man can be 
both brave and rational. In the book of Reve- 
lation the fearful are put into the same category 
with the unbelievers, clearly implying the close con- 
nection between lack of faith and lack of courage, 
the converse of which, or the intimate connection 
between them, is positively affirmed by Peter, when 
he exhorts Christians to add to their faith, virtue, or 
courage- — manly energy.* The relation of courage 
to Christianity, its proper place in a system of 
Christian morals, presents a subject of enquiry of 
vast practical moment, and one which deserves much 
more attention at the hands of Christian teachers, 
than it has received hitherto. It is, in fact, not less 
essential to the Christian than to the Homeric hero : 
and in its true nature and highest forms, it is not 
merely illustrated but commended and enforced in 
the Bible, not less than in the Iliad. In its aggres- 
sive form it is exercised principally in a positive 
testimony for certain truths which men are apt to 
despise and hate, although in themselves most sub- 
lime, and to us most needful; and a corresponding 
witness against certain sentiments and usages which 
though highly esteemed among men, are abomina- 
tion in the sight of God. It commands us not to 
resist evil; and, therefore, many of its most despised 
manifestations and sublime triumphs are passive. 
*2 Peter i. 5: apery. John xii. 42; Matt. x. 28-33. 



190 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

Assuming the gentle form of charity, it endureih all 
things. In no character, is courage more useful 
and becoming than in a minister of the gospel : he 
needs it not less than a soldier. The commission 
under which he holds his sacred office obliges him 
to go to the ends of the earth, if called, in the 
providence of God, to visit infected districts, to 
minister to men dying of contagious and loathsome 
distempers, and confront death in all its most ap- 
palling forms. He must execute justice and main- 
tain truth; he must exercise discipline on the rich 
and resentful; and thereby not unfrequently risk 
his reputation, ease, and what is more trying than 
either, the very bread of his wife and children. 
The highest courage is a Christian grace, and like 
faith, and love, of which it is compounded, is to be 
sought from God by prayer. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 191 



LECTURE IX. 

CHRIST, CONSIDERED AS OUR EXAMPLE. 

We are often animated in duty simply by reflect- 
ing, how another person of eminent faithfulness 
would be likely to act, in our circumstances. A 
question which might appear perplexed, or a course 
which might seem doubtful, regarded alone in the 
light which our own reason and conscience could 
throw upon it, might seem comparatively clear, 
when considered in connection with the known prin- 
ciples and habits of another. There are few of us, 
perhaps, who have not been emboldened to enter 
upon a hard or hazardous career of duty, by the 
seasonable recollection of some one more largely 
endowed with faith and the Holy Ghost than our- 
selves. This impression will be the clearer, and 
the corresponding impulse the more controlling, just 
in proportion to the estimate which we form of the 
excellence and wisdom of the man, whose salutary 
influence we feel. 

All this is not only recognized, but enjoined 
by the Scriptures. " Take, my brethren, the pro- 



192 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

phets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, 
for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. 
Behold, we count them happy, which endure. Ye 
have heard of the patience of Job, and seen the end 
of the Lord ; that the Lord is very pitiful and of 
tender mercy." Jas. v. 10, 11. We are taught by 
the meek fidelity of Moses, the courageous piety 
of Joshua, the religious candour of Caleb, the heroic 
daring of Gideon, the early faith of Samuel, the 
elevated devotion of David, the matchless wisdom 
of Solomon, the steadfast resolution of Mordecai, and 
the wonderful patience of Job ; by the affectionate 
reverence of John, by the impetuous zeal of Peter, 
by the comprehensive wisdom, the enlightened zeal, 
the single-eyed self-devotion, and the all-conquering 
vehemence of Paul. The timely recurrence of these 
names to memory, may well animate our souls with 
dauntless courage in circumstances of danger, and 
inspire them with heavenly wisdom when perplexed 
with doubt and difficulty. If we can bring our- 
selves to think, as they in our situation would have 
thought, to feel as they would have felt, and do as they 
would have done, we shall, in the vast majority of 
cases, think, and feel, and act, as we ought. 

But after all, these were men of like passions 
with us, eminently holy, and faithful, and wise, but 
stained with the same original corruption, strug- 
gling with the same evil propensities, and sometimes, 
alas ! overcome by the same temptations. We must, 
therefore, scrutinize their conduct with jealous 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 193 

vigilance, and imitate their actions with discriminat- 
ing wisdom. As inspired by the Holy Ghost, their 
official teachings are authoritative and infallible ; 
but as men compassed about with infirmities, their 
example was imperfect, as they themselves bear 
witness. Rom. vii., passim ; and 1 John i. 8. With 
every reasonable abatement, however, on the score 
of their personal deficiencies when brought to the 
standard of a perfectly holy law, still the contem- 
plation of their character is eminently fitted to 
edify and ennoble us; and it can as little be doubted 
that the more perfect their example, the more in- 
structive and the more delightful to behold it. Now 
what was confessedly wanting in them, his personal 
attendants, his inspired apostles, his most saintly 
disciples, is found in Christ himself. He and he 
alone has left us an example of holiness, in feeling, 
in principle, in speech, and in action, which we may 
imitate without exception and without error. " He 
was holy, harmless, un defiled, and separate from 
sinners. " When assaulted by Satan, that foul fiend 
was made to feel that he had no part in him, that 
in his nature was no corruption or weakness, on 
which his diabolical engines could play, on which 
his diabolical subtlety could fix or fasten ; and the 
glozing tempter was forced to retire from the con- 
flict baffled, beaten, ashamed, exposed. Our Lord's 
triumph over Satan in his temptation was not only 
in all points an example to believers, but an achieve- 
ment for them. He was their federal head and 
17 



194 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

representative in victory, as Adam in the fall ; and 
as in Adam's fall they fell, so in Christ's steadfast- 
ness they stood, in his victory they conquered. 
Therefore, this was symbolic and prophetic of the 
final triumph of all believers over Satan and sin, 
death and hell. To others, the Holy Ghost was 
given by measure, to him without measure. Others 
were sons of God by adoption and by grace, he was 
the Son of God by the possession of a divine nature 
and from all eternity. In doing as the very best 
of his servants have done, we may do wrong ; in 
following his blessed example, it is impossible to 
err. 

Taking only a general and distant survey of the 
character of Christ, we behold in him the divine 
law fulfilled in all its demands, and obeyed in all 
its precepts. Matt. iii. 15. The life of the Lord 
Jesus Christ shows how beautiful the life of man 
can be on the earth. u God is light, and in him 
is no darkness at all." The natural sun, glorious as 
it is, still hath its spots, but the moral excellence of 
the Lord Jesus Christ is absolute, unspotted, infi- 
nite. It is the righteousness of the great God and 
our Saviour. But for our better instruction, certain 
notes of this peerless harmony are singled out — 
certain rays of this sunlike glory, certain features 
of this perfect beauty — and receive specific and 
significant names, that we may bestow upon them a 
more distinct and intelligent consideration. Thus 
the titles of the Lord Jesus Christ may be viewed 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 195 

in their intrinsic or absolute significance, in their 
relation to him, as marking off or shadowing forth 
some special aspect of his universal excellence; and 
in their relation to us, as indicating the attribute 
which we are specially to study and copy. As the 
Lamb of God, the sheep dumb before his shearers, 
we have not merely the great fact of his sacrificial 
oblation, but he teaches us meekness, forbearance, 
long-suffering, gentleness, all the passive virtues. 
They are designedly illustrated in these events of his 
recorded history. So the title of the Lion of the tribe 
of Judah may teach us the opposite, and not less 
important class of virtues, zeal, aggressive courage, 
strength of will and, to sum up in a word, all the 
active virtues. The Bright and the Morning Star 
indicates that as in his glorious person all divine 
perfections meet, so the rising of the beams of 
his grace upon the nations chases away the shades 
of night, and heralds the coming day of knowledge 
and holiness, of love and joy. As a painter con- 
templates the mien and features, the dress and gait, 
the fugitive aspects and expression of the person, 
whose portrait he desires to take ; so the Christian 
should dwell with studious and delighted attention on 
the character of Christ, until the various lineaments 
are traced on his own soul. In proportion to the 
clearness, the exactness, and the beauty of the 
image of Christ drawn on our hearts, is the perfec- 
tion of our subjective Christianity. If a man have 
the spirit of Christ, he will have the same spirit of 



196 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

prayer, of patience, of gentleness, of meekness, of 
active goodness, of zeal for the glory of God, indif- 
ference to unjust and unreasonable censure, invinci- 
ble calmness under contumely, and provocation, and 
sinful persecution, which Christ himself evinced. 

In his example was gathered a bright assemblage 
of all the graces which constitute a perfect charac- 
ter. In him there was no defect and no redundancy. 
One virtue is never exercised at the expense of 
another. It is this admirable harmony of excellen- 
cies, which we are especially to note and to imitate. 
All things great are simple — the sky — the sea. On 
account of this very simplicity, perhaps, we are 
less struck with the character than we might other- 
wise be. There are no salient points, the whole is 
a boundless and beautiful horizon. There are no 
peculiar virtues, there is throughout the harmony 
of absolute and infinite perfection. On every occa- 
sion he said exactly what was wise, he did exactly 
what was right. Never in the prosecution of an 
important object, or the rebuke of a reigning sin, 
or the correction of a prevalent evil, is he even for 
a moment betrayed into any species of extravagance, 
or does he for a moment overlook or forget any 
portion of the vast circle of human duties ; but with 
the eye of Omniscience he scans it all at once. 
Surveyed in the clear light of truth, as present to 
his soul and shining in his life, every duty appears 
in its proper magnitude, and assumes its just rela- 
tions. He gives to Csesar, the things which are 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 197 

Caesar's, and to God, the things which are God's, 
Of him alone, of moral teachers, can it be truly 
affirmed, that his precepts and practice perfectly 
agreed. Whatever he recommended to others, he 
did ; whatever he condemned, he forebore. And of 
all the abuses of his times, none pained him more, 
or excited in his benignant bosom deeper detesta- 
tion, or called forth from his compassionate lips a 
more withering anathema, than did the cruel hypo- 
crisy of the Pharisees of the day, who bound on 
men's shoulders heavy burdens, which they them- 
selves would not so much as touch with the tips of 
their fingers. It is impossible to contemplate such 
a character with faith and love, and not receive 
the highest spiritual profit. Nothing indeed is so 
apt to redeem the soul from the curse of grovelling 
propensities, and raise it to God, as the devout and 
delighted contemplation of the brightness of the 
Father's glory, and the express image of his person 
in human flesh. The mind is unconsciously, but 
powerfully, affected by the objects on which it dwells 
with sympathy and delight. The forms of beauty 
and of grandeur which fill the chambers of the soul 
gradually become a part, not of its furniture, but 
of itself; like the burnished and brilliant cloud 
which we have often seen dissolving insensibly 
away, until entirely blended with the blue sky. So 
well known is this principle of our nature to poets and 
artists, that they love to reside amid the noblest 
forms of nature, or the most wonderful achieve- 
17* 



198 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

ments of art. They gaze on these glories with 
congenial delight, until the spirit which they breathe, 
and the beauty which they bear, have passed into 
their own souls, and become a permanent portion of 
their spiritual being. The sacred Scriptures expli- 
citly recognize the operation of this principle, when 
they urge us to behold the glory of God in the face 
of Jesus Christ, till we are changed into the same 
image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the 
Lord. 

To copy the character of Christ, will require of 
course a very particular knowledge of the events 
of his life, the places which he visited, the persons 
with whom he was brought into contact, the occa- 
sions on which he spoke and did the things recorded 
of him. In order that we may have a fixed and 
infallible standard of duty, we must have an exact 
and extensive knowledge of what our Lord did, and 
how he thought and acted ; and with this perfect pat- 
tern compare our own thoughts and deeds in the 
various exigencies of daily life. Christ was the 
great Reformer, not in the sense of adding anything 
to the divine law, but of exposing and condemning 
the false glosses of the Jewish doctors and restoring it 
to its original integrity and lustre. Thus most fine 
gold, become dim, may be burnished and brightened. 
As an illustration of these spiritual reforms, we 
may consider our Lord's doctrine in relation to the 
proper treatment of enemies ; the ground and extent 
of forgiveness ; and the duty of suffering for right- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 199 

eousness, sake ; all of which was exemplified in his 
own personal history, in infinite perfection. 

The doctrine which he delivers in regard to the 
proper treatment of our enemies is peculiar to re- 
vealed religion. It is agreeable to reason, and it 
commends itself to every man's conscience in the 
sight of God, as truly noble. But it is not the 
spontaneous dictate of our corrupt affections, and it 
is a doctrine totally unknown to the schools of 
heathen moralists. With them it was a point of 
honour to avenge every injury, and they regarded 
it not as the glory of a man to pass by a trans- 
gression, but as the mark of a mean and craven 
spirit. But our Lord makes the cordial forgiveness 
of those who have injured us the indispensable con- 
dition on which we are to hope for pardon from 
God. He has embodied this benign principle in 
that beautiful prayer, which he gave as a legacy 
and model to his people, and we cannot say, " Forgive 
us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass 
against us," without suspending our own pardon on 
the pardon which we accord. Nay more, it may 
be logically looked upon as a special imprecation 
of the awful vengeance of Almighty God, to pray 
for forgiveness if we fail to exercise it. 

The principle on which we are required to forgive, 
is that God is Judge alone, and that to assume to 
ourselves the work of recompensing evil, is an auda- 
cious invasion of his judicial prerogative. It is in 
effect to displace the Deity, and act on the principle 



200 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

of atheistic independence. We may further reflect 
that it is entirely unreasonable to hope for the re- 
mission of such a debt as we all owe our Lord — 
ten thousand talents, while unwilling to forgive the 
comparative trifle due to us from a fellow-creature. 
The method by which we shall most successfully 
resist the strong impulse which hurries us on to ven- 
geance, is calm and Christian meditation. We may 
regard an enemy in our thoughts, as the heartless 
and high-handed aggressor, who has invaded our 
dearest rights and offended our deepest sensibilities, 
or wrongfully deprived us of some coveted good ; 
and while we give place to thoughts like these, a 
bitter and a burning rancour will take possession 
of our souls, which nothing but an ample vengeance 
can satiate. Or we may contemplate this very 
person, and all his deeds and designs of malice 
toward us, as an offender against that great and 
dreadful Being, who has made and will judge both 
him and us. We may think of the deep-seated and 
tumultuating sorrows of the heart that is capable 
of such perfidious and cruel wrong, and thus the 
correspondent feeling of pity will be awakened, and 
we shall be so far in spirit from the fiendish desire 
to torment him before the time, that we shall 
sincerely ask God to forgive and bless him. No dis- 
position is more unbecoming a professed follower of 
Jesus Christ, than a cold and sleepless, and snake- 
like malice. " Put on therefore as the elect of God, 
holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 201 

humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, for- 
bearing one another and forgiving one another, if 
any man have a quarrel against any ; even as 
Christ forgave you so also do ye." Col. iii. 12, 13. 

In the life and death of our blessed Master, we 
have the most sublime exhibition of the fulfilment 
of all these precepts. Betrayed by one friend, de- 
nied by another, deserted by all, assaulted by a 
furious multitude with swords and staves, confronted 
by false accusers, beset by a hideous combination 
of the chief priests and elders, condemned as a 
blasphemer, spit upon, buffeted, scourged, arrayed 
in a scarlet robe in bitter mockery, his brow en- 
circled with a crown of thorns, reviled by the 
passers by, scornfully taunted when hanging on the 
cross, not a murmur of indignation or resentment 
escapes his lips. " But when he was reviled, he re- 
viled not again, when he suffered he threatened not, 
but committed himself unto him that judgeth right- 
eously/ ' and even amid the provocations and the 
agonies of that hour, was heard a voice, that pierced 
the heavens, " Father, forgive them, they know not 
what they do." Luke xxiii. 34. 

We have seen the generous compassion with which 
our Lord forgave his enemies, even at the very 
moment when he was enduring the utmost that their 
insane malice could devise or inflict. Let us con- 
sider another part of this universal goodness — I 
mean his tender affection to his friends, and above 
all to his mother. It has been objected to Chris- 



202 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

tianity, that it nowhere inculcates, in express terms, 
the duties of friendship, with how much candour and 
justice we shall be able to see after passing under 
review a few incidents of our Saviour's earthly 
history. To speak of this affection, however, as the 
proper subject of precept or command, is to betray 
utter ignorance, both of its nature and office. 
Friendship is a sentiment which arises unbidden in 
the mind, on the perception of attractive qualities in 
another. It is the manifest token, and the natural 
fruit, of a certain indescribable congeniality of taste 
and temper. It is not an effect of volition, but an 
instinct of nature. It arises as surely from the 
common possession of certain moral affinities, as 
does the sense of pleasure from the sight of a lovely 
landscape, or from the odour of a rose. Christianity, 
therefore, does not institute or command, but exem- 
plify and consecrate these beautiful regards. It is 
no part of our duty to feel the sentiment of friend- 
ship for any particular person, and, therefore, it is 
not authoritatively demanded. There are other af- 
fections, however, such as gratitude and esteem, 
which are often confounded with friendship in the 
popular apprehension, and which frequently do ter- 
minate in it, which we ought to exercise, and which 
therefore, are embraced in the precepts of Scripture. 
We are plainly required to cherish feelings of cor- 
dial good-will toward every human being, whether a 
foreigner or countryman, and to testify our good- will 
by acts of substantial kindness. We are expressly 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 203 

taught to be courteous, to exercise ungrudging 
hospitality, to show mercy to the poor, and to for- 
give our enemies. So far as the exercise of the 
emotion of friendship is a Christian virtue, it is in- 
cluded in the comprehensive precept of the apostle : 
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, 
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are 
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things 
are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there 
be any praise, think on these things." Phil. iv. 8. 
Friendship, as the dictate of nature and not a fruit 
of the Spirit, might safely be left to the simple 
working of nature's laws and of nature's sympathies. 
With the infallible insight which marks all the pro- 
visions of the gospel, our Saviour rather assumes 
than inculcates the exercise of this pleasing affection 
when he says, "If ye love them which love you, 
what thank have ye ? for sinners also love those who 
love them." Luke vi. 32. 

It has been very far from my intention to cast 
contempt upon this noble and attractive sentiment. 
It has always been felt with most generous ardour, 
with most delicate sensibility, by the purest and 
most exalted minds ; and in its most perfect phase, 
it dwells only among the good. In the Lord Jesus 
it appeared in the highest lustre. That universal 
benevolence toward the sons of man, which caused 
him to lay aside for a season the regalia of heaven 
and tabernacle among us, was concentrated into a 
livelier glow toward certain favoured objects. It is 



204 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

scarcely possible to picture a more tender or a more 
delightful vision than that of the Son of man, re- 
tiring for a season from the crowded and splendid 
and wicked capital of Judea, to solace himself by a 
few hours' heavenly converse with the affectionate 
and simple-hearted family of Bethany. 

The pen of the evangelist is suffused with a home- 
felt tenderness, while it portrays this scene of 
natural joy; and many a Christian household has 
been filled with a kindred delight, while the narra- 
tive which commemorates this scene of the moral 
picturesque, has been read in their hearing by some 
gray-headed father; and many an eye has been 
moistened by the tear of sympathy with Him, who, 
yielding to the tenderness of nature, wept with those 
weeping sisters. How well does this incident in the 
personal history of our Lord accord with the pre- 
cept afterwards delivered by his apostle, enjoining it 
upon his disciples to weep with them that weep, and 
rejoice with them that rejoice! 

In nothing does the divine wisdom of our Saviour 
appear more clearly than in his personal demeanour 
toward her who was so " highly favoured'' as to be 
his mother according to the flesh. Evidently an- 
ticipating and condemning the idolatrous homage 
which has been bestowed upon her since his decease, 
he spoke of her and to her in such terms as some 
have deemed inconsistent with filial duty ; but which 
subsequent events, and the present sentiment of a 
large portion of nominal Christendom, have vindi- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 205 

cated as eminently wise and needful. When, upon 
a certain occasion, a woman broke forth into the 
exclamation, " Blessed is the womb that bare thee, 
and the paps which thou hast sucked,' ' our Lord 
corrected her ignorant admiration, and said, " Yea 
rather blessed are they that hear the word of God 
and keep it." Luke xi. 27, 28. On another occa- 
sion, when told that his mother and brethren stood 
without, desiring to speak with him, he said, "Who 
is my mother, and who are my brethren?" Then 
turning to his disciples, he added, "Behold my 
mother and my brethren, for whosoever shall do the 
will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is 
my mother and sister and brother." Matt. xii. 47. 
These passages plainly show that, so far from 
being immaculate and the proper object of religious 
worship to others, her own final and eternal blessed- 
ness was wholly suspended on the faith and obedi- 
ence which she should render to Him who was at 
once her Son and her Saviour. But while our Lord 
did not fail to address her in such terms as should 
for ever rebuke idolatry, he still manifested toward 
her the most affecting filial tenderness. Even in 
that dread hour when a more than mortal darkness 
overspread his soul and the weight of a world's re- 
demption bowed his head, and the propitiatory blood 
was flowing from his feet, his hands, his side, his 
brow ; even then, in the last extremity of nature's 
anguish, the thought of her who bare him, still 
presses on his heart, and turning to the best be- 
18 



206 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

loved of all his disciples, he bequeaths the precious 
legacy of his mother's keeping to his fidelity and 
affection; saying to him, "Son, behold thy mother !" 
and to his mother, "Behold thy son !" What an 
example is here ! How eloquently does such a 
scene enforce and enhance the sacred obligation of 
filial duty ! How does it consecrate and endear the 
tender relation of parent and child ! There is no 
spectacle dearer to the eyes of God or man, than 
that of an affectionate child cheering the declining 
years of a parent. This is evidently the order 
of nature and the testimony of Jesus. At such a 
period, life requires every sweet and soothing atten- 
tion, and the emotions of complacent and gratified 
affection which such kindness excites, are scarcely 
less to be considered than the substantial services 
which gave them birth and being in the heart. 

And if there be a human tear 
From passion's dross refined and clear, 
'Tis that which pious fathers shed, 
Upon a duteous daughter's head. 

The extreme copiousness of our Saviour's exam- 
ple, extending to every branch of human duty, 
renders it difficult to consider it at once with brevity 
and profit. We have already contemplated his treat- 
ment of those two great classes — his enemies and his 
friends. We may now glance at certain of his ex- 
traordinary works, and, in conclusion, mark his ex- 
emplary performance of the special duties which 
man owes to God. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 207 

It must be obvious, that in some particular aspects 
of his conduct, Christ could be no example to us, 
in consequence of the peculiarity of his person and 
office. We are evidently unable to follow him, 
when he walks upon the sea, as on dry land ; when 
he but speaks a word, and its raging billows sub- 
side ; when he converts a few loaves and fishes into 
an abundant supply for above five thousand men, 
besides women and children ; when he restores the 
loathsome leper to perfect soundness ; when he 
causes the sweet light of heaven to gladden eyes 
long sealed in darkness ; or when with perhaps a 
more impressive majesty, he speaks and his voice 
pervades the silent halls of death, and recalls to 
the blessed consciousness of life, those who had 
been locked in the mysterious slumbers of the 
grave. 

Destitute of the Divinity which dwelt in his human 
nature, as in a temple, we cannot, of course, imitate 
these miraculous manifestations of love. But we 
can exercise the principle from which they all 
sprang, and which they were all designed to express. 
It is true, we cannot raise the dead, but we can 
serve the living. We cannot cleanse the leper, but 
we can visit the fatherless and the widow in their afflic- 
tion. We cannot by miracle supply the needy, but 
we can take of our abundance and minister to their 
wants. We cannot restore sight to the blind, but 
we can ourselves "be eyes to the blind.' ' We can 
sit by the bedside of the blind and sick, and read 



208 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

the words of grace and life. Thus, though we can- 
not exercise His almighty power, we may practise 
his fervent charity ; and if there be in us the same 
mind which was also in Christ Jesus, we shall, like 
him, go about doing good. 

The narrow-minded and unbelieving consider that 
lost which they dispense in charity. They look 
upon it as water spilt upon the ground which cannot 
be gathered up again, as just so much taken from 
the sum of their possessions ; whereas nothing is so 
truly and permanently ours as that which we bestow 
in Christ-like charity. " He that giveth to the poor 
lendeth to the Lord ; and that which he hath given 
will he repay him again. " " Blessed is he that 
considereth the poor ; the Lord will deliver him in 
time of trouble." " It is more blessed to give than 
to receive.' ' 

Surely it was not without design to affect our 
hearts with a kindred charity, that the record of 
our Saviour's personal beneficence was made. Sure- 
ly, it was not without design to awaken in us a 
kindred compassion, that we are informed of the bag 
set apart for pious alms, even among the indigent 
attendants of our Lord ; and if on a bed of death 
— a scene that most of all needs the balm of pleasant 
memories — and a scene too, from which the most 
beneficent life will look sufficiently barren of good ; 
if on a bed of death any recollection would be 
sweet, it must be the thought that others, who have 
gone before us to God, have borne witness to our 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 209 

bounty, and that there are those left behind us on 
earth to attest it when their praise can no more de- 
light "the dull, cold ear of death." 

In Christ, we perceive the harmonious union of the 
active and contemplative life. His beneficence to- 
ward men was not more remarkable than his piety 
toward God. If he went about doing good to the 
bodies and souls of men, he walked with God in the 
secret path of spiritual service. In religious obser- 
vance, his example was as instructive as in useful 
labours. He often retired from the companionship 
of his friends to commune with his heavenly Father. 
Not one of his disciples spends the time in prayer 
which he was wont thus to employ. He spent whole 
nights in prayer. Alone with his God, by the cold 
mountain's side, with no couch but earth, and no 
canopy but heaven, he poured out his heart in 
prolonged supplications and pious praises. In the 
garden of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives, on 
the bloody cross, he prayed in agony and tears. 
And in these hours of sacred and dread striving with 
his God, against principalities and powers, he did not 
confine his prayers to his own personal deliverance, 
but bore, on his burdened heart, the sins and the 
sorrows of all his people. As by virtue of his inter- 
cession it was, that Peter's faith failed not, and he 
was graciously recovered from his grievous fall ; so 
the steadfast faith, and patient piety, and triumphant 
struggles of his people since, are due to the preva- 
lence of the same intercessions. In the seventeenth 
18* 



210 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

chapter of John, we have a recorded specimen of 
our Saviour's intercessory prayers. We there be- 
hold his reverence, his trust, his thankfulness, his 
goodness, his faithful love to his own people, his 
wise concern for their welfare, his comprehensive 
and enduring care for all the generations of the 
just. 

This is a part of his perfect example, which espe- 
cially commends itself to our imitation. Without the 
spirit of prayer, there can be no Christian piety. 
It is a blessed privilege of the believer in Jesus to 
resort to him for light in darkness, consolation in 
trouble, courage in danger, deliverance in tempta- 
tion, and triumph in death. All his people have 
experienced the efficacy of prayer. They have 
gone forth from their dwellings in the anticipation 
of trial, with a mind sobered and strengthened by 
the grace of Christ. And when the archives of 
eternity shall be explored, and the events of this 
life known in their hidden springs and most remote 
issues, it will doubtless appear that many a noble 
deed and many a wise forbearance has been effected 
in direct answer to prayer, prompted by the Spirit 
and presented in the name of the Lord Jesus. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 211 



LECTURE X. 

THE CHRISTIAN GRACES, THE HIGHEST HUMAN 
VIRTUES. 

In the Christian system, the connection between 
religion and morality is vital. In the ancient 
pagan religions, and in many, perhaps in most if not 
in all, of the systems of modern paganism, they 
were entirely divorced. They were not only di- 
vorced but antagonistic. Instead of enforcing the 
obligations of morality, and establishing the au- 
thority of conscience, the pagan religions relaxed 
the one and abolished the other. They not only 
permitted but prescribed the grossest immoralities, 
in many instances making gluttony, drunkenness, 
and lust, a component part of their abominable 
idolatries. Their religious services were the deifica- 
tion of sin, and their sacred temples, the schools of 
pollution. The moral among the pagans were 
such not in virtue but in spite of their religion, and 
the mild and modest among them habitually adored 
cruel and licentious deities. The gods they wor- 
shipped were not gods but devils, the magnified 



212 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

image of their own vile affections. Such were the 
gods of Egypt and Syria, of Canaan and of 
Greece. 

It is highly worthy of remark that all corruptions 
of the true religion and all departures from it, may 
be traced and measured by their immoralities of 
theory and practice ; teaching that we may do evil 
that good may come, cheat and lie and murder for 
the credit of the church and the glory of God, and 
indulge the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, pro- 
vided we attend rigorously to all purely religious 
duties. 

This misdirection of the religious sentiment, this 
divorce between the religious instinct and practical 
virtue, which is the common characteristic of all 
false religions and of all perversions of the true, 
is perhaps the greatest enemy of true piety and of 
pure morality. The exclamation of Madame Ro- 
land, when she was carried to execution : " Liberty ! 
how many crimes have been committed in thy 
name !" maybe applied to religion. Looking back 
upon the records of history, beholding the shameless 
impurities, the horrible profaneness, the senseless 
mummeries, and the hideous cruelties, which have 
been employed in the worship of God, the bloody 
wars which have been waged for the suppression of 
his truth and for the extermination of his servants, 
we may well exclaim, " Religion ! what crimes 
have been committed in thy name 5" 

Such is the connection between religion and 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 213 

morality in the pagan and in the corrupter forms 
of the Christian religion. But in the pure and 
Apostolic draught of Christianity, religion and 
morality are not indeed identified but inseparable. 
Religion is the animating soul, morality the out- 
ward and visible body. The Christian religion, 
having its seat in the soul, works from within out- 
wardly, and the daily beauty of a good man's life 
is only the outward shining of a beautiful soul. It 
is the unveiling of the hidden and holy light within, 
the ebullition and overflow of the inner fountain of 
life, the efflorescence and bloom, the aroma and 
sweetness, of the incorruptible seed sown in the 
heart and growing up silently and secretly there. 
It is the ointment of the right hand that bewrayeth 
itself, the articulate and audible voice going forth 
from the recesses of the invisible oracle. In the 
wise and beautiful words of Coleridge, in whom the 
wisest philosophic subtlety and the richest poetic 
fancy were so signally combined : " It is indeed faith 
alone that saves us, but it is such a faith as cannot 
be alone. Purity and beneficence are the epidermis, 
faith and love the cutis vera of Christianity. Mo- 
rality is the outward cloth ; faith the lining. The 
images of the sun in the earthly dew-drops are un- 
substantial phantoms ; but God's thoughts are things; 
the images of God, of the Sun of righteousness, in 
the spiritual dew-drops, are substances, imperishable 
substances.* 

* Literary Remains, &c, Vol. v. p. 463 : Prof. Shedd's 
Edition. 



214 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

A man who is truly religious will be righteous 
just in proportion as he is religious. Practical ex- 
cellence is not only the fruit and the token, but the 
test and the measure of Christian piety. It is its 
felt accordance with what conscience, the voice and 
vicegerent of God in the soul, declares, demands, 
and recognizes, as true, as fitting, as august and 
holy and divine, which constitutes the plainest and 
strongest of all the manifold proofs of the divinity 
of the Christian religion, as revealed in the Scrip- 
ture and represented in the Saviour. We cannot 
but feel, and from the depths of our spiritual nature 
own, that a system which appeals so clearly and so 
powerfully to that spiritual nature, in its wants and 
wishes, in its hopes and fears, in its highest aspira- 
tions after truth and beauty and goodness, is a true 
revelation from the true God. The voice which 
comes forth from these holy oracles, is echoed back 
from the profoundest depths of conscience. That 
religion, which is felt to affirm, to exalt, and to en- 
force all the sanctions and all the obligations of the 
purest moral virtue, is felt to be true and divine. 
It is self-evidencing, shining in its own li^ht, and 
commending itself to every man's conscience in the 
sight of God. 

No other than the true religion ever could accord 
with an enlightened conscience. In every other 
there is a perpetual conflict between the convictions 
of the moral sense and the supposed will of God. 
The only strife which can arise in the mind of a 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 215 

Christian is that which arises out of a want of com- 
plete correspondence between his religious creed and 
his moral conduct. He feels that he fails in the 
attainment of perfect excellence, only because he 
fails in perfect obedience to what his religion re- 
quires him to be and to do. The peculiar power of 
the doctrine of Christ over the hearts of men lies 
in the profound consciousness, that when most under 
the dominion of the Christian faith, they are most 
under the dominion of moral virtue. The purifying 
efficacy of the Christian faith on himself is a con- 
sideration which addresses itself with most intense 
force to the consciousness of every believer ; and it 
is, of all the arguments for the divinity of the 
Christian system, the most simple and conclusive. 
When most religious we are most virtuous. When 
our souls are glowing with most grateful and ador- 
ing love to Him, who though he was rich yet for our 
sakes became poor, that w T e through his poverty 
might become rich, we feel the most patient and 
zealous love for all men, especially for the house- 
hold of faith ; and thus there is consciously estab- 
lished the most complete correspondence between 
Christian doctrine and moral excellence. 

It is a sad and notorious truth, however, that 
many nominal Christians, losing sight of the distinc- 
tive glory of their heaven-descended faith, really 
sever their religion from their morality, almost as 
widely as the pagans ever did. They go to church 
and pass through all the forms of worship punctually 



216 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

— it maybe punctiliously. " And they come unto thee 
as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my 
people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do 
them : for with their mouth they shew much love, 
but their heart goeth after their covetousness." 
Ezek. xxxiii. 31. " To what purpose is the multi- 
tude of your sacrifices unto me ? saith the Lord : I 
am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat 
of fed beasts ; and I delight not in the blood of 
bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye 
come to appear before me, who hath required this 
at your hand to tread my courts ? Bring no more 
vain oblations : incense is an abomination unto 
me ; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of as- 
semblies, I cannot away with, it is iniquity, even the 
solemn meeting. And when ye spread forth your 
hands, I will hide mine eyes from you ; yea, when 
ye make many prayers I will not hear : your hands 
are full of blood. Wash ye, make you clean.' ' 
Isa. i. 11-16. 

It may be that these deluded men have, while in 
the house of prayer, what they account comfortable 
frames and feelings, and yet when they go back to 
their homes and their business, are just as proud 
and selfish, and passionate and niggardly, as they ever 
were. Thus they do practically " fix a great gulf" 
between religion and morality, an ordinary day 
and the Sabbath — the counting-house or the work- 
shop, and the sanctuary. Their religion and their 
every day morality, like knowledge and wisdom, " far 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 217 

from being one, have ofttimes no connection," — 
like oil and water they refuse to coalesce ; the one 
floats on the top, the other sinks to the bottom. 

The heartfelt reception of the Christian reli- 
gion carries with it not only the cardinal virtues — 
such as truth, justice, chastity ; and the utter ab- 
horrence of the opposite sins — such as murder, 
lying, theft, and all manner of uncleanness, but 
the finer, loftier, and more ethereal graces, are stu- 
died and striven after, not only the sterling virtues 
that go to make up the web and the woof of the 
Christian character, but the beautiful graces which 
set it off and commend it ; sincere goodness showing 
itself in its own native and proper lustre. Accord- 
ing to one divine delineation of the Christian vir- 
tues ; Phil. iv. 8 ; we have first the broad founda- 
tion of truth, underneath the whole structure as a 
solid rock, on which the whole building with its 
appropriate ornaments and pendants may firmly 
and fitly rest ; then what is honest, or, perhaps more 
strictly according to the present sense of the terms, 
what is venerable or holy, and likely to fill the be- 
holder with involuntary awe, but with an awe so 
tempered by the presence of what is graceful and 
lovely, as to be altogether pleasing — next justice or 
equity in the dealings of men one with another, 
seeking not to overreach or injure — manifestly 
formed on the golden rule of doing to others, as we 
would have them do to us, and illustrating what 

this same apostle enjoins elsewhere : " Look not 
19 



218 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

every man on his own things, but every man also 
on the things of others," — then purity, not only 
unfeigned purity of heart, but showing forth in 
speech and action, — " the sun-clad power of chas- 
tity," in Milton's majestic phrase. These are the 
foundations and main supports of the building, the 
solid rock, and the strong pillars, and the great 
pilasters ; to these we are to add every embellishment, 
and every attraction proper to the finished beauty of 
the finest Christian character. Whatever will natur- 
ally conciliate favour and win esteem, whatever men 
justly approve as amiable and praise-worthy, must 
lend its fascination and its charm to the Christian 
character, must confer a glory and beauty on this 
architecture of heaven. 

This is an inspired sketch of what every Christian 
is sacredly bound to aim at for himself, and as far 
as may be, to embody and illustrate. He is not 
only to abstain from the grossness of positive pollu- 
tion, but to avoid what is unseemly or doubtful. 
He is not only to attain the solid and staple prin- 
ciples of the Christian character, but the cheerful 
and shining courtesy which will put a lustre on his 
substantial worth and give it currency. How many 
are there who are good at heart, men whom the 
better you know them, the more you respect and 
like them ; but men who are rough and regardless 
of appearances, whose very piety has something 
dogmatic and repulsive in its manifestations, whose 
good is evil spoken of, not in consequence of any 






YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 219 

essential defect, but from the neglect or disdain of 
the amenities of life ! There are truly good men 
whose dialect and demeanour do not recommend 
their religion, especially to the young and unthink- 
ing men, who are seemingly so sour and cheerless 
and churlish, so obviously lacking in that courtesy 
which the most energetic and uncompromising of the 
apostles explicitly commends, in that winning sweet- 
ness of manner which is the true index and fitting 
interpreter of a loving heart, which propitiates 
a brother offended, and so disarms opposition, often 
before it be itself aware, that they fail to recommend 
their religion, w T here they might and when they ought. 

So far is this gentle consideration for the rights 
and feelings, and even the innocent prejudices of 
others, from involving a sacrifice of principle, or 
implying a lack of honesty, that it is impossible, ut- 
terly impossible, for any who have not beforehand 
secured the substantial framework, the strong and 
solid foundation of love and truth and goodness, to 
feel or to evince it. These external indications 
then appear as their fitting garments, their goodly 
and graceful ornaments, apples of gold in pictures 
of silver, the spacious and solid temple but stately 
and magnificent, " Doric pillars overlaid with golden 
architrave.' ' 

Thus we find that throughout the realms of 
nature and the works of Providence, the useful is 
accompanied by the beautiful ; the beautiful is based 
and built upon the useful ; from the sublime me- 



220 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

chanism and movements of the heavenly bodies, so 
glorious to behold, the moon walking in brightness, 
accompanied by troops of stars, her shining retinue, 
to the modest flower which performs her part in 
the chemistry of nature, and in the very act uncon- 
sciously unfolds her beauty to the eye, and the rich 
ripe fruit, or the clusters of the vine, bending be- 
neath their precious burden, while glowing with 
beauty and fragrant with sweetness. 

A character, which should exhibit the graces por- 
trayed by the pencil of the Holy Ghost, would 
shine in the native beauties of holiness, in the gen- 
uine colours of heaven. What is holiness, but the 
incarnation of the gospel in man, the possession of 
the Spirit, and the practice of the precepts of Christ ? 
What is holiness in the creature, but likeness to the 
all-glorious Creator ? And what is the beauty of 
God, but the general sum of his ineffable and adora- 
ble perfections in their harmonious manifestation ? 
The beauty in which man shone at first, consisted 
in the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, 
and true holiness, with dominion over the creatures. 
That image lost by the apostasy, is restored in re- 
demption ; forfeited in fallen Adam, is replaced in 
the Redeemer Christ. 

To effect this renewal, the everlasting Jehovah 
laid his glory by, became man, and suffered the 
death of the cross. He thereby purchased for his 
own people the precious gift of the Holy Ghost, 
whereby they are supernaturally renewed in the 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 221 

image of God, and have a title to the inheritance 
of heaven. The crown of knowledge, holiness, and 
dominion which had erewhile fallen from their heads, 
is restored again by the gracious hand of a sover- 
eign Redeemer. They have now pardon of sin, 
peace of conscience, hope of a blessed immortality, 
and the promise of a glorious resurrection. It is 
enough to say in the words of an apostle, " Even now 
are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear 
what we shall be, but we know that when he shall 
appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as 
he is : and he that hath this hope purifieth him- 
self, even as he is pure. If ye love me, keep my 
commandments. " This is the all-comprehensive test 
of love to the Saviour and of fitness for the kingdom 
of heaven. 

The improvement of a truly regenerate person in 
all the beautiful graces, which adorn the Christian 
character, is a gradual thing. There is first the 
grain, then the ear, after that the full corn in the 
ear. The path of the just is as the shining light, 
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. 
The building rises gradually and gracefully toward 
heaven. There is first the foundation, then the 
main body of the building, then the capital and 
crowning ornaments, the roof overarching all, and 
the spire pointing to the skies. At first, the image 
is drawn, it may be only in obscure outline ; but 
afterwards the lines are deepened, the features be- 
19* 



222 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

come more distinct and definite, and the resemblance 
to the divine original clear and strong. 

The pulsations of spiritual life in the hearts of those 
who are nevertheless " born again, not of blood, nor 
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
God" — may be so faint and feeble that they them- 
selves may be scarcely conscious of it ; but the pro- 
per law of the kingdom of God, in grace as well as 
in nature, is growth. We are commanded to " grow 
in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ." We are exhorted to add to our 
" faith virtue, [or courage,] and to virtue knowledge, 
and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance 
patience, and to patience brotherly-kindness, and to 
brotherly-kindness charity ;" and we are divinely 
assured, that " if these things be in us and abound, 
they make us that we shall be neither barren nor 
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." Faith is the root-grace, the mother-grace, 
because it apprehends Christ, from whose indwell- 
ing Spirit all other graces flow. Love is the flower 
of all the other graces, outlasting faith and hope, 
flourishing in immortal fragrance and beauty, when 
transferred to the atmosphere and transplanted in 
the soil of Paradise. These graces are essential to 
the Christian character in its lowest stage of de- 
velopment, so essential that a man cannot be a 
Christian and have them not, yet they are capable 
of glorious increase. And as such, they are matter 
of precept and promise. " Add to your faith," says 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR, 223 

Peter, in a passage already quoted. " Lord, increase 
our faith, " is the prayer of the apostles. Paul 
prays for the Colossian Christians, "That they 
might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, 
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing 
in the knowledge of God;" Col. i. 10; and for 
them of Thessalonica, " The Lord make you to 
increase and abound in love one to another, and 
toward all men. ,, 1 Thes. iii. 12. 

We may now very briefly indicate some of the 
most important instruments which Providence em- 
ploys in this beauteous building, to bring it to the 
fullest symmetry, and adorn it with the fairest 
lustre. 

It is an assured and delightful truth, "that all 
things work together for good to them that love 
God ; to them that are the called according to his 
purpose.' ' The way of the Christian is divinely 
ordered in all things. The gracious providence of 
his God hedges him about at all times. Every 
event in the earthly history of God's elect, is pre- 
ordained and rendered conducive to their abundant 
entrance into the everlasting kingdom of his dear 
Son. In reference to their present afflictions, it is 
particularly promised that they shall work out for 
them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory. Temptations, which are so dreadful in the 
view of our personal weakness, and are so fatal to 
great multitudes of the rash and self-confident — are 
to them not merely harmless, but just occasions of 



224 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

thanksgiving and joy. " My brethren, count it all 
joy when ye fall into divers temptations ; knowing 
this, that the trial of your faith worketh pa- 
tience.' ' James i. 2, 3. Thus the secret nexus 
between the adverse dispensations of God, and the 
spiritual prosperity of his people, is disclosed ; and 
so the sharpest sting of sorrow is extracted. 

All the spiritual mercies of God are directly de- 
signed, as they are visibly adapted, to form and fix 
his holy image in their hearts. The ordinances of 
his house, the prayers, the praises, the instructions, 
and the sacraments of the sanctuary, are formed in 
infinite wisdom, to the end that they may build us 
up in faith and hope of the gospel. Every exercise 
of these graces tends to increase and confirm their 
dominion. The presentation of the gracious and 
majestic objects of our faith to the mind, the dis- 
tinct and delighted contemplation of them, has, 
naturally, a powerful tendency to awaken, to extend, 
and to purify the Christian graces, to which they 
severally and unitedly appeal. Superadded to all 
this is the supernatural supply of the Spirit of 
grace : " He giveth power to the faint ; and to 
them that have no might he increaseth strength. 
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the 
young men. shall utterly fall : But they that wait 
upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they 
shall mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall 
run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not 
faint." Isa. xl. 29-31. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 225 

Every thing spiritually good in fallen man is, in 
Scripture, ascribed to the supernatural working of 
the Holy Ghost ; and the experience of all Chris- 
tians tallies with this account. Pure religion and 
undefiled is implanted, nurtured, and brought to 
fruitfulness, by constant supplies of the Spirit of 
grace. For in us, that is in our flesh, dwelleth no 
good thing; "and without me," says our blessed 
Saviour, "ye can do nothing. ,, 

There are times when the ploughman is called to 
plough and sow, for then the earth is soft with 
showers and ready for the seed ; so there are times 
when the soul should be cultivated with special 
diligence, for it is softened by affliction, and humbled 
by sorrow, and made susceptible by grace. There 
are times when men should make great progress in 
the understanding and fear of the Lord, in the 
abundance and fervour of their supplications in 
the Spirit ; in their contempt of the pleasures, and 
dreams, and passions of the world, and in the 
warmth and purity of their love to the Lord Jesus. 

The necessary conclusion from all that has been 
alleged, touching the design of God's providential 
dispensations, and his spiritual mercies, is, that the 
continual growth of all true believers in the know- 
ledge, the favour, and the likeness of God their 
Saviour, is both a privilege and ar duty. But here 
we are met with a practical difficulty. We often 
hear good men bemoaning themselves, and saying, 
"Oh that it were with me as in months past, when 



226 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

the candle of the Lord shone upon me ! My leanness ! 
my leanness !" When these sad complaints proceed 
from the sincere servants of the Most High, they 
are generally the outcry of a conscience wounded 
and writhing under a sense of sin. They have for- 
saken God and fallen from their first love, and as a 
punishment, he sends a horror of great darkness. 
If a Christian is not growing in all the parts and 
perfections of the Christian life, he ought to be sad, 
he ought to be in trouble, and it is a dark sign of 
hypocrisy if he is not in trouble, while living far 
below his recognized duty and revealed privilege. 

But some may complain that they are making 
little, if any conscious progress, while yet they are 
following on to know the Lord — faint, yet pursuing. 
To such, I would suggest, in the first place, that 
they may be really making progress, and yet not be 
able themselves to discern it. This view, of course, 
is not to be applied by any who are living in known 
sin, or who are at ease in Zion, but by the humble, 
the self-distrustful, the conscientious. Let such 
reflect that the operation of grace in the heart is 
mysterious, and it may be imperceptible, yet we 
know that, though unseen, the progress is not the 
less real and rapid. "Though," says the apostle, 
" our outward man perish, yet our inward man is 
renewed day by day." 2 Cor. iv. 16. 

We may not be able at the close of any one par- 
ticular day to perceive that we have made any 
appreciable advance, but take a longer period and 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 227 

the progress may be more apparent. Thus, when 
we look at a young tree, or a flower, or a stalk of 
corn, or a growing child, at the close of a single 
day, we are able to detect no difference in height. 
But let weeks or months intervene, and then the 
growth will be obvious enough. 

In the second place, we should reflect that we 
may be growing in humility and godly sorrow ; in 
circumspection and in conscientiousness, in spiritual 
discernment and in Christian charity ; when we are 
not growing in conscious joy, and in a comforting 
sense of the divine favour. We may, notwithstand- 
ing, be better in the sight of God, when we are 
worse in our own ; and we may be better in the 
sight of God, because we are worse in our own. 

We should have ever present to our minds a high 
ideal of Christian excellence, not to discourage, but 
to stimulate us. This ideal we shall never ap- 
proach unless we use, with all diligence, the means 
graciously afforded. They who neglect the means 
need not expect to attain the object. Is it surpris- 
ing, then, that so many among us languish, when 
they do so little for their spiritual health and happi- 
ness ? Do we expect a man to enjoy bodily health 
who neglects all rational precautions, and plunges 
into every species of excess ? You may reply, If we 
are absolutely dependent upon divine grace, for every 
good gift, where is the use of giving ourselves any 
trouble about the result ? Why be so concerned 
about diligence on our part ? It might be enough 



228 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

to reply, God wills our diligence and commands it. 
We are exhorted to "give all diligence, to make 
our calling and election sure." 2 Peter i. 10. That 
should be enough for us. But the method by which 
God works in us, is by inciting us to work. He 
works in us both to will and to do of his good plea- 
sure ; and every deep conviction of the necessity 
of using to the utmost all the appointed means of 
grace, is the fruit of his Spirit and the pledge of 
his favour. 

The religion of Jesus, in its power and purity, is 
the perfection of human nature — its glory and 
crown. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is the 
universal cure for the manifold maladies, the only 
corrective of the deepseated evils, of human nature. 
It does not, indeed, alter or abolish the individual 
differences among men, so as to reduce them all to 
one level, to raise them all to one rank, to cast them 
all in one type. But it makes the most of any one 
individual, on whom its power is legitimately exerted, 
that can be made of him. It educates, while 
it exalts all his powers, enlarges and fills all his 
capacities for truth, and goodness, and happiness. 
All men have not the original grant of power, which 
was lodged by nature in the Apostle Paul. But 
take a common man and let him be possessed of as 
large a measure of grace as was bestowed on this 
gifted disciple of Gamaliel. He might not then be 
as ardent, as wise, as industrious, as eloquent, as 
useful as he ; but still he would be an eminent saint, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 229 

a hero, a light, and if need be, a martyr. He would 
be altogether a different man from what he was be- 
fore, he would seem to have new faculties. Nothing 
so elevates the moral feelings and invigorates the 
natural powers as true piety. It strengthens, feeds, 
developes, disciplines, and purifies all the powers 
of thought and action. A thorough Christian is of 
necessity a thorough man. Let any ordinary man 
be transformed by divine grace into a thorough 
Christian, be filled with the Spirit, and he will at 
once undergo a wonderful metamorphosis ; he will 
become at once a marked man and a mighty man ; 
retaining all that properly pertains to his own indi- 
viduality, he will yet be obviously a different man, 
and a man in every point and particular, in mind, 
and heart, and life, incomparably elevated, thus 
showing that the Christian graces are the highest 
human virtues. 

20 



230 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 



LECTURE XI. 

THE GLORY OF GOD, THE END OF OUR EXISTENCE. 

The glory of God, or the manifestation of his 
supreme excellence, may without irreverence be de- 
clared to be the ruling thought of the divine mind, 
the principle and end of his government, to which 
every thing is subordinated, to which every thing is 
referred, the original spring and ultimate object of 
all his counsels and dispensations, word and works. 
We therefore as his creatures should set it before 
us, designedly, consciously, habitually, as the 
motive and end of all we do. " To the glory of God," 
should be written on ourselves, on all our possess- 
ions and on all our actions. If we ever forget that 
this is the ultimate end of all that he does or per- 
mits to be done, we lose sight of the central and 
controlling principle of the divine government. It 
is to the moral what the attraction of gravitation is 
to the material world. To it every thing is subor- 
dinated and on it everything is dependent. For it 
we should be resolved to live, and prepared and 
content to die. Our minds, our lives, will never be 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 231 

rightly adjusted, until they are brought into con- 
scious and complete harmony with the mind and 
counsel of God. 

Obedience is the end of all scientific theology ; 
we know truly only so far as we love and serve. 
There is a theology of the intellect, cold, barren, 
dead, that may be united with a proud, imperious 
and selfish temper, and there is a theology of the 
heart, warm, fruitful, living, full of mercy and good 
fruits, gentle, loving, faithful, self-sacrificing, pro- 
moting universal goodness, the fruit of God's truth, 
applied by his Spirit, and the sure token of his ever- 
lasting favour. 1 Cor. viii. 1. That knowledge 
which has its residence only in the head and on the 
tongue, is of all ignorance the most incurable and 
pernicious. Obedience to God is first active, doing 
whatever he commands ; secondly, passive, forbear- 
ing to do what he forbids, and patiently enduring 
what he imposes. Our constant prayer should be, 
Lord, make me fully obedient to thee in all things 
through the life-giving power of thy grace ! We 
misplace and misspend our anxieties, on earthly 
treasure and pleasure, instead of our souls and hea- 
ven and God. He who does nothing without re- 
ference to the glory of God can never willingly 
commit sin. How would the thorough ascendency 
of this principle simplify our course and sanctify 
our lives ! How would it project our thoughts and 
aims out of ourselves ! How would it raise them in 
sacred strivings above the stars of heaven ! We 



232 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

should put no limit to our obedience and consecra- 
tion, not seek to come up to some commandments 
or to the faithfulness of some Christians, but seek 
to do all the holy will of God, spiritually and per- 
fectly. We should set no period to our labours, but 
be most diligent and devoted, for the time to come, 
in those very things in which we are conscious of 
failure in the past, multiply defences and forces at 
the weakest points, be strong in the Lord, and in the 
power of his might. 

There is great danger, as we advance in life, of 
confounding the maturity of natural powers and 
the soberness incident to a more enlarged experience, 
with growth in grace. As there is a weariness of 
life altogether different from deadness to the world, 
so there is a perception of many of its vanities, and 
a conviction of many salutary truths, painfully in- 
wrought, which is consistent with a state of mind, 
subject to all worldly delusions and practical un- 
godliness. 

Duty and devotion rest on the same foundation. 
Both are meant to render honour to God. To ab- 
stain from pettishness, violence, and all unseemly 
actions and emotions ; and to practise all righteous- 
ness, therefore, is as needful as to pray. The con- 
sideration of the future, as an incentive to prayer, 
is wise and Christ-like. The habit of taking trouble 
on trust is most unmerciful to ourselves and the source 
of unprofitable despondency, wholly foolish so far as 
w T e are concerned, and at once betrays and begets 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 233 

lack of confidence in the providence and perfections 
of God. But there are certain inevitable and awful 
events before us all, doubtless some peculiar trials 
in reserve for some, that should be so considered as 
to cause us to prepare for them by prayer. The 
Bible tells us even in prosperity, to remember the 
days of darkness, for they shall be many. 

In a time of adversity, Moses thus prays, 
" So teach us to number our days that we may apply 
our hearts unto wisdom/ ' Our Saviour generally, 
specially in the immediate foresight of what w T as 
coming upon him, persecution, betrayal, denial, 
death, and such a death ! fortified himself by prayer, 
and so should we. Prayer is our strength. Who has 
not felt it a secure retreat when every other refuge 
failed; a fortress of God safe and impregnable, 
because it engages omnipotence to aid us ? It lays 
hold of every ground of hope, every perfection of 
God, every promise of Scripture, every motive of 
action. The real source of independence of men is 
dependence on God. Faith is the antithesis and 
antidote to fear. When we can confide the whole 
care of our souls, the whole conduct of our affairs, 
to God's keeping, they will be safe and we shall be 
happy. But they who renounce the service of God 
in prosperity, when they think themselves secure, 
will forfeit and must forego his help in trouble, when 
they feel themselves needy. We should not transfer 
to any creature or created cause, the love and con- 
fidence due to God. If in danger or trouble, we 
20* 



234 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

trust in strength of body, or wealth or health or 
intellect, and they fail us, we have nothing left us 
and therefore fall into despair. When we lose 
them we lose every thing ; but when we put our trust 
in the living God, we confide in One who will never 
leave or forsake us ; and if we lose every thing else, we 
have all things in him. Ps. lxxiii. 25. Faith in 
God implies and embraces all things, confidence in 
the efficacy of prayer, sense of protection in peril, 
comfort in distress, hope in extremity, perpetual 
watchfulness against temptation and sin, together 
with unslumbering diligence in all Christian duties. 
No man ever yet attained great moral elevation, 
without faith in God and the spiritual strength 
w T hich is derived from communing with him in prayer. 
It is the highest triumph of faith, to believe that 
God will overrule all the evil in the universe to the 
best and noblest end — his own glory. And of this 
we may be absolutely certain, from the knowledge 
not only of his purposes, but of his perfections, his 
wisdom, holiness, power, mercy, goodness, and truth. 
To love God and to trust in him when he deals 
kindly with us is natural, and may be seen even in 
the heathen; but to love him when he deals with us 
in fatherly severity, argues a truly Christian and 
heavenly temper. 

No creature is mean, since every creature can 
minister, and was made to minister, to the honour 
and glory of God. Man is especially noble as 
capable of rational, .spiritual, and voluntary service^ 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 235 

and of conscious delight therein. The differences 
between all human souls are small, compared with 
the things which they have in common. Varieties 
of endowment, of vigour, versatility and brilliancy 
of mind — of education and accomplishment, vast as 
they may be — are yet inconsiderable, compared with 
their common curse in the apostasy, their common 
redemption in Christ, and their common immortality 
in a future state of being. This constitutes the real 
basis of the dignity of man, as man, of the immea- 
surable importance of every human being, savage 
and civilized, bond and free. The importance which 
attaches to mankind is quite peculiar. The interests 
of the universe centre around man. Our planet is 
small in comparison with others, but it is the battle- 
field of the Deity and the devil, the scene of the 
apostasy, and the theatre of redemption. No man 
can be considered altogether wretched, so long as he 
retains his interest in his fellow-man. Hamlet was 
on the verge of distraction, or over it, when he said, 
"Man delights me not." Brotherly love is the 
medicine of individual griefs, as well as the cement 
of human society. To cultivate a generous interest 
in our kind, to cherish a tender spirit of humanity, 
is not only to perform the most comprehensive of 
our social duties, but to do most for the develop- 
ment and purification of our own happiness. The 
devil can do us no greater mischief, than to make 
us first hate God, and then hate man. 

From the hour a man first believes, every thing 



236 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

should be given to God, and every thing should be 
done to God, and for him. So comprehensive is the 
apostolic precept, "Whether therefore ye eat or 
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of 
God." 1 Cor. x. 31. Whatever we undertake, and 
whatever we do, we are to do all so that God shall 
be praised and his glory promoted. This principle, 
as it is of the utmost importance, so is of the 
widest compass. It extends to every person and to 
every thing, to every action and to all places. No- 
thing can be so important, and nothing so trivial, as 
to be exempted from its operation or beyond its range. 
In every prayer we offer, in every letter we write, in 
every book we read, in every journey we take, and 
in every conversation in which we engage, there 
should be ever present and ever active the desire to 
glorify God. We ought ever to contemplate and con- 
trive every thing, with an eye to its effect on our 
own, and the spiritual interests of others. In think- 
ing, in speaking, in feeling, and acting, our sole 
and simple purpose should be to glorify God. If 
every Christian were fully possessed with this habit 
of mind and life, how speedily would the world be 
converted to God ! 

There are two ways of doing all to the glory 
of God ; one is explicitly, consciously, designedly. 
This we do in the important actions, and on the 
great occasions of life, when we first solemnly dedi- 
cate our souls to God, and sanctify our lives to his 
holy service. We do this designedly and of set 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 237 

purpose to his honour and glory. So when we 
unite in any act of formal divine service, as in the 
solemn celebration of the sacraments, and in the 
stated service of the sanctuary, or in the regularly 
returning seasons of private devotion. 

But, as Christians, we may, we should, we must 
set the Lord always before us, and feel that because 
he is at our right hand, we shall not be moved. We 
may not only pray formally and statedly, but 
always, without ceasing, never fainting. Thus, we 
may prosecute the glory of God, habitually, uncon- 
sciously, and generally, in the spirit and habit of 
the soul, in every action of the life, and during 
every hour of the day. It is possible to pursue our 
common occupations in a sacred spirit, to intersperse 
secular labours with fragrant and holy prayers, to 
send up silent ejaculations to God, like swift-winged 
messengers of grace, thus keeping up an instan- 
taneous and uninterrupted commerce with the glori- 
ous world of invisible spirits. So to live, is to have 
every day sanctified, a perpetual Sabbath of the 
soul ! — " the bridal of the earth and sky !" 

Thus, a real Christian will see God at all times, 
and serve him in all things, in his recreations, and 
in his engagements. To him, a common meal, sanc- 
tified by faith and thanksgiving, will yield more 
spiritual nourishment than a sacrament, to many 
others. This, to use the beautiful thought of the 
excellent Leighton, is the elixir that turns lower 
metals into gold, the meaner actions of this life into 



238 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

obedience and holy offerings unto God. To main- 
tain such a holy correspondence with heaven, amid 
our earthly labours and distractions, would lighten 
them amazingly, and make them sweet. This, 
again, to adopt Leighton's thought, would refresh 
us in the hardest labour ; as they that carry the 
spices from Arabia are refreshed with the smell of 
them in their journey. 1 Peter iv. 2, 3. Religion 
is not intended for high days and holidays only, but 
for all days. It is not intended to afford us holy 
cheer and comfort in death only, but to be our law, 
and guide, and rule in life as well. It doth not 
carry with it a recompense only, but a duty and a 
service also. It is perfectly possible to pursue a 
sacred calling, and be engaged in sacred duties in a 
secular spirit ; as on the other hand, it is possible 
to pursue a secular business in a sacred spirit, with 
faith and prayer, referring every thing to the will, 
the providence, and the glory of God. 

After these more general views let me now sug- 
gest some specific reasons why we should make the 
glory of God our ruling principle and final aim in 
life. To have some great and worthy object in life 
is infinitely needful to every rational creature. And 
what should this object be but to glorify our Creator, 
from whom we have received, and from whom we 
hope all things ? What nobler object can any one 
propose to himself than to live for the glory of God ? 
How mean and little that man's spirit, whose 
supreme concern on earth is to advance his own 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 239 

selfish interests, to heap up money, to build up a 
family, to make a name ! Compare an evangelical 
missionary of education, ability, piety, and zeal, 
who spends his life in leading the heathen to hea- 
ven ; instructing them kindly by the wayside and 
from house to house ; sanctifying their heathen 
tongue by the translation of the Christian Scriptures, 
with the same man spending his life in his native 
land for merely personal purposes, or going to the 
ends of the earth for the sake of gain. How exalted 
the one ! How common-place the other ! The one, 
how like a white-robed visitant from heaven, passing 
through this world of ours to beautify and bless it ! 
The other, a son of our common clay, born to con- 
sume the fruits of the earth, and die and be buried 
and forgotten ! What a noble answer is given to 
the first question in our shorter Catechism ! u What 
is the chief end of man ? Man's chief end is to 
glorify God and enjoy him for ever." What end can 
the soul propose to herself more lofty and seemly, 
more religious and holy, more attractive and wise, 
than the beholding and manifesting the supreme 
glory of the ever blessed God, the infinite Creator 
of heaven and earth, to all eternity ? What can 
impart such dignity, interest, elevation, sobriety, 
steadfastness, and usefulness to our daily life, as the 
faithful pursuit of this sublime end ? What else 
can save us from a life of insipidity, insignificance, 
failure, wretchedness, and vice, but such a ruling 
principle, such an ultimate and exalted aim ? What 



240 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 



is the reason that so many men are perfect blanks, 
utterly and inexpressibly useless in the world, 
vegetating rather than living, therefore not cared 
for, not respected while they live, not missed nor 
mourned when they die, unless it be by some fond 
mother or sister, whom the 

" Strong bond of blood or nature draws," 

to weep over the grave where the useless lie buried? 
Why is it that so many are positively pernicious, 
their presence a pollution, their example a pest, 
their memory a shame, and their influence a curse ? 
Why is it but because they have not lived to the 
glory of God, they have never once raised their 
eyes above " this dim spot which men call earth," 
to the bright and imperishable heavens, because 
they have never sought seriously, diligently, pa- 
tiently, prayerfully to serve the great Creator and 
our Saviour Jesus Christ ? These men have lived 
for meaner, lower, sinful, selfish objects. They 
have been of the earth, earthy. They have loved 
and served the creature rather than the Creator, 
who is God over all blessed for ever more. They 
have lived and longed and laboured for the things 
of time and sense, not for the sublime realities of 
faith and eternity, for the glory of God, the favour 
of Christ, the fellowship of the Spirit, and the 
happiness of heaven. Therefore their whole career 
has been one grand mistake, one general failure, 
one deadly sin. They have been their own begin- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 241 

ning and end, centre and circumference. Their 
thoughts have begun, continued, and ended in self. 
Themselves have been their God. They have been 
atheists because they have been egotists. Their 
idolatry has been the basest and the vilest, the 
idolatry of self. They have denied the Supreme 
God because they have been devoted to their own 
glory, or to their own ease, or selfish enjoyment. 
The busy aspect and pompous preparations of such 
men, men who live for temporal and selfish objects 
merely, men who in heart and in fact are worship- 
pers of self, may be fitly likened to an Egyptian 
temple of enormous size, of immense cost, but en- 
shrining an ape or a toad. 

All men, who are not living to the glory of God, 
are living for self. All who are not faithful, self- 
denying, earnest- minded, single-eyed Christians, are 
living for self. Their real object may be artfully 
concealed or disguised, and from no human eye 
more effectually than from their own ; but if they 
are not living for this great end, if they are not 
guided by this great principle, if they are not ani- 
mated by this high purpose — regard in all they do 
to the glory of God, nothing, alas ! can be plainer 
than that they are living for themselves. The first 
reason then why every man ought to live to the 
glory of God, is that every man ought to have a 
great and governing purpose ; to give unity, con- 
sistency, elevation, and interest to his life ; to pre- 
vent aimless and useless endeavours, ill-directed, 
21 



242 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

unfixed, wandering desires ; to evade the restlessness, 
the perplexity, the anxiety consequent on an un- 
governed mind; and as every man should have 
a governing object in life, that object should be the 
worthiest and highest. And the worthiest and highest 
can be nothing less, can be none other than the 
glory of Grod. A second reason for making the 
glory of God the principle of action and the end 
of existence is, that thus and thus only shall we 
attain the proper perfection of our nature. The 
mind is a proper end unto itself. Knowledge is so 
noble and so precious, because it builds up the soul 
in strength and freedom and dignity, not mainly for 
any inferior and outward advantages connected with 
it. " But the greatest error of all the rest (says 
Lord Bacon) is the mistaking or misplacing of the 
last or furthest end of knowledge ; for men have 
entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, 
sometimes upon a natural curiosity, and inquisitive 
appetite ; sometimes to entertain their minds with 
variety and delight ; sometimes for ornament and 
reputation ; and sometimes to enable thern to victory 
of wit and contradiction, and most times for lucre 
and profession, and seldom sincerely to give a true 
account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and 
use of men ; as if there were sought in knowledge a 
couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless 
spirit, or a terrace for a wandering and variable 
mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect, or 
a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon, 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 243 

or a fort or commanding ground for strife and con- 
tention, or a shop for profit or sale, and not a rich 
storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and the 
relief of man's estate."* 

Sir William Hamilton, in his Lectures on Meta- 
physics, just issued from the press, a book that 
opens a new world of thought to the intelligent 
student, remarks more directly and explicitly on 
this point: "It is manifest, indeed, that man in so 
far as he is a mean for the glory of God, must be an 
end unto himself, for it is only in the accomplish- 
ment of his own perfection, that as a creature he 
can manifest the glory of his Creator. Though, 
therefore, man, by relation to God, be but a mean, 
for that very reason, in relation to all else, is he an 
end."f 

God has so constituted man and the universe 
which he inhabits, that he can find his true dignity 
and blessedness, only when supremely devoted to 
his service. It is the crowning glory and felicity 
of man's nature, that he has been made capable of 
knowing, and loving, and serving the true God and 
Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. He was never 
designed to find his happiness in the creature, 
but in the ever blessed God; in a life of selfish 
ambition, of vain power, of successful striving after 
worldly riches, or glory, or good, but in seeking 

* Advancement of learning, Bk. 1st. p. 174. Mon- 
tague's Edition. 

t Metaphysics, p. 4. 



244 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

after God, in the adoration of his glorious perfec- 
tions, in profound subjection to his sovereign will, 
in a sweet sense of his gracious nearness to us, and 
fatherly compassion toward us. 

If romance be an extravagant and erroneous 
estimate of things, if it be a departure from the 
truth of nature into the wild realms of fancy and 
fiction, then is the cold, hard, scheming man of the 
world — intent on multiplying possessions which he 
does not need and cannot use — as unwise as a ro- 
mantic boy. For consider, how little it takes to 
satisfy the natural needs of men, how insatiable are 
artificial and imaginary wants, how this man is 
degrading his nature, hardening his heart, burden- 
ing his conscience, and blotting his memory, merely 
that he may indulge his imagination by dwelling on 
that wealth, which he never means to use. The 
romantic boy and the scheming man are equally 
busied with day-dreams and air-castles ; who shall 
say, whose are the more rational, or rather the more 
ridiculous ? It would not be hard to say, whose 
are probably the more exalted and generous ; since 
a tincture of noble sentiment is apt to mingle with 
the extravagant dreams of youth, and impart to 
them a beautiful colouring. 

The true riches are not material, but spiritual ; they 
do not consist in fertile fields, and stately dwellings, 
and fine pictures ; in delicious viands, and costly 
wines, and a long train of obsequious attendants ; 
but in a well-ordered mind and a pure heart ; in 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR, 245 

composed affections ; in a clear judgment ; in a can- 
did soul ; in a will resigned to the dispensations of 
heaven, and resolute in the choice of right ; in the 
absence of envy, suspicion, and hate ; in the pre- 
sence of humility, charity, and goodness ; in the 
favour of God, which is life ; and in his loving- 
kindness, which is better than life. 

A transforming change, in the inner character 
of the soul, would alter even the outward aspect of 
the world. Then smitten with the sacred love of 
truth and goodness, spiritual beauty and heavenly 
wisdom, how empty and insipid would seem the 
ordinary objects of ambition and desire ! how 
like painted vanities and gaudy toys ! The object 
of the Christian religion, subjectively considered, is 
the purification and development of man's inner and 
spiritual being in the glorious service of God. The 
essence of this consists in the assimilation of the 
soul of man to the image of God, in knowledge, 
righteousness, and true holiness. In these spiritual 
treasures the proper wealth of the soul consists ; 
and thus we find that the perfection of our nature 
is inseparably blended with the service and glory 
of God. 

A third consideration, directly leading to the 
same conclusion, has been incidentally alluded to 
already ; but, for its importance, deserves to be 
more formally propounded. It is, that his own 
glory is the ultimate end of all that God does. If 
his own glory be the highest object that he can set 
21* 



2-16 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

before himself, if it be the end of all his dispensa- 
tions, it is clearly the highest object which we can 
propose to ourselves. And need I argue, to prove 
to any man who has access to the Bible, that this 
is, of a truth, the ultimate end of all the dispensa- 
tions of God ? Is not the whole Scripture from be- 
ginning to end, one long, repeated, and diversified 
testimony to this effect ? " The Lord hath made all 
things for himself. " " For of him, and through him 
and to him, are all things. " " For it became him, for 
whom are all things, and by whom are all things.' " 
" I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last." 
Prov. xvi. 4 ; Rom. xi. 36 ; Heb. ii. 10 ; Rev. i. 8. 

The ultimate end of the creation, then, is to show 
forth the glory of the Creator. In every star his 
glory shines, in every stream, in every flower and 
gem, in every insect, in every angel, in cherubim 
and seraphim, in heaven and on earth. 

We cannot honour God by giving to him any 
thing that he has not already in possession, but we 
may honour him by acknowledging what he is, re- 
posing confidence in his promises, regarding his 
threatenings with awe, and giving to him the glory 
due unto his name. 

The glory of God is the end contemplated in the 
whole course of his providence, and pre-eminently, 
in the work of redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ. 
At the birth of our Saviour the angels sang, " Glory 
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good 
will toward men." "That at the name of Jesus 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 247 

every knee should bow, and every tongue confess, 
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the 
Father." "Having predestinated us to the adop- 
tion of children, to the praise of the glory of his 
grace." Luke ii. 14; Phil. ii. 6-11; Eph. i. 3, &c. 

The glory of God is the end of the creation, the 
end of providence, the end of redemption, of his judg- 
ments on the wicked, of his sanctification of the 
righteous. It is the great end of the miracles which 
he has wrought, and of the ordinances which he has 
bestowed upon his church. 

In strict correspondence with this declared de- 
sign, is the structure of our Lord's prayer ; the first 
petition of which is that his name be hallowed, and 
the conclusion of which is an ascription of glory to 
God, "for thine is the kingdom, and power, and 
glory, for ever, Amen." That which God aims at 
we should aim at, that which the God and Father 
of all proposes to himself as the best and highest 
end of all that he does in nature and providence, in 
time and eternity, on earth and in heaven, by 
angels and men, should be our chosen aim and end. 

This doctrine lies at the foundation of all correct 
theology, of all just views in speculative morality, 
of all sound principles of practical morality, of all 
philosophic truth, and of all wise legislation. Re- 
garding his own glory as the final aim of all his 
dispensations and decrees, many difficulties in the 
course of divine providence, otherwise insuparable, 
disappear at once ; and many vaunted improve- 



248 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

ments in systems of philosophy, morality, and law, 
are perceived to be false and hollow. Much of the 
philanthropy which is supposed to be Christian, is, in 
fact, antichristian, opposed alike to the law and the 
gospel, equally irreconcilable with the spirit of the 
Mosaic and Christian dispensations. Thus, those 
views of morality and law which resolve all punish- 
ment into benevolent chastisement for the good of 
the offender, and represent the sole purpose of suf- 
fering judicially inflicted to be for the prevention, 
and not the punishment of crime — are opposed alike 
to the instincts of conscience, to the dispensations 
of God himself, and to the welfare of human society. 
Much of the humanitarianism of this age and coun- 
try rests upon a total misapprehension of the true 
character of the divine administration, and is wholly 
inconsistent with any high view of human obliga- 
tion, and of human destiny. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 249 



LECTURE XII. 

THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN THE COMMON AFFAIRS 
OF LIFE. 

The Bible is an inspired commentary on the dis- 
pensations of God. It lifts the veil from divine 
providence and shows his agency where, otherwise, 
it might not be seen or suspected. There is an in- 
cident in the history of Israel, which is in this point 
of view peculiarly instructive. Joshua x. 11. The 
Hebrew leader had been engaged in a perilous con- 
flict in defence of the Gibeonites, his allies and de- 
pendents. The enemy far outnumbered any forces 
that he could bring into the field. But, animated 
by the justice of his cause and putting his trust in 
Israel's God, he advanced suddenly upon the enemy 
and gained a decisive victory. Now, in the inspired 
account of this engagement, the agency of God is 
recognized throughout. It is the Lord that dis- 
comfited the foe before Israel ; the Lord that slew 
them ; the Lord that chased them ; finally it is the 
Lord that cast down great stones from heaven upon 
them, causing their dispersion and death. 



250 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

If an uninspired historian had been giving a 
narrative of this battle, he would probably have done 
it in this wise : " The courage and conduct of this 
skilful and intrepid leader were crowned with 
deserved success. His enemies, confident in their 
superior numbers and anticipating an easy victory, 
were surprised, subdued, and scattered. What con- 
tributed not a little to the success of the forces of 
Israel, was a fortunate fall of hail, which blinded 
and terrified their adversaries.' ' If the writer 
were a philosophical historian, like Hume or Gibbon, 
he would probably add, with a sneer, that "the 
discomfiture of the allied forces was the more dis- 
astrous and complete, by reason of a natural phe- 
nomenon which their ignorant and superstitious 
fancies interpreted as a token of the displeasure of 
the gods." 

What a difference would it make in history, if it 
were written and read and acted under a perpetual 
sense of the divine presence ! Practically, the 
majority of men are atheists in their way of think- 
ing, or they conceive every thing to be subject to an 
iron necessity; the universe to be governed by 
blind mechanical forces, alike uncontrollable and 
irresistible, which they are content to recognize 
under the dignified designation of " the laws of 
nature." They thus contrive to banish God from 
his own universe as effectually as from their hearts, 
to depose him from his kingly throne, or reduce 
him to a pitiable impotence and inaction. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. , 251 

If this be philosophy, we would none of it ! We 
prefer to believe with the simple-hearted Christian, 
who, taking the Scripture for his guide, can sing 
with cheerful faith that beautiful hymn, 

In each event of life, how clear, 

Thy ruling hand I see : 
Each blessing to my soul, most dear, 

Because conferred by thee. 

God speaks of this world as his world. He claims 
it as his own. He declares his presence in every 
place, his agency in every event, his power over 
every person, his sovereign sway over every depart- 
ment and every manifestation of nature. 

God speaks his will in his providence, he does 
not write a man's sin over his name, but he so sends 
his punishment as to mark the man and to mark 
the sin. How often is all this perfectly plain, es- 
pecially when the outward deed is shone upon by 
the faithful light of conscience, and most of all, 
when conscience has been itself first shone upon by 
the pure light of God's truth and Spirit ! It is each 
man's business to find out his sin for himself, and 
so to read God's providence as to rise from the 
lesson a wiser and a better man. If we do not see 
the hand of God in the events of daily life, it is our 
own blindness and folly. His awful voice is heard 
not less distinctly, not less impressively in provi- 
dence than in nature ; in the calamitous events of 
life, not less than in the strife of the material 



252 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

elements ; in the shocks and troubles of the heart, 
not less than in the angry tones of the thunder ; 
while his gentle power is felt in the sweet peace of 
the soul, not less than in the beautiful sunshine and 
the soft evening breeze. 

It is thus that God rules in nature, in history 
and in the ongoings of the world. He does really 
rule as much in profane as in sacred history, but 
not so manifestly. The veil is removed in the one 
case, it remains in the other, to conceal " his hand 
and his counsel," however, only from the unbelieving 
and the undiscerning. How gloriously did Jehovah 
of hosts, the King of Heaven, go forth of old at the 
head of his armies ! How often, how solemnly, 
with what authority does he declare that they got 
not the land in possession by their own sword ; 
neither did their own arm save them ; Ps. xliv. 3 ; 
but his right hand and his arm and the light of his 
countenance, because he had a favour unto them ; 
that the horse and his rider were thrown into the 
sea, by the Lord Almighty, when Pharaoh and his 
"Memphian chivalry," sank like lead in the mighty 
waters ! The pillar of cloud and of flame was the 
token of the God that led them. The stars in their 
courses fought against Sisera. The proud hosts of 
Sennacherib, King of Assyria, were gathered to- 
gether against the beloved of the Lord, and he sent 
forth an angel and slew in one night a hundred and 
eighty and five thousand. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 253 

Like the leaves of the forest, when summer is green, 
That host with their banners at sunset were seen ; 
Like the leaves of the forest, when autumn hath blown, 
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. 

In the times of the Judges, it was the Lord God 
of Israel, that triumphed by Gideon, by Jepthah, and 
by Sampson. 

In the life of David we have repeated illustrations 
of the same fact. It is written, " Saul sought him 
every day, but God delivered him not into his hand." 
1 Sam. xxiii. 14. Without admitting that the evil 
actions of men proceed permissively from God, and 
are comprehended in his plan of moral government 
for this world, and are overruled so as to advance 
his ultimate and gracious designs, we can not in- 
terpret Scripture or deal with the facts of human 
history. Not to insist at present on the most im- 
portant and illustrious instance, the condemnation 
and crucifixion of the Lord of glory, we can not but 
be struck with the testimony of David, when urged 
by Abishai to suffer him to slay the injurious and 
blaspheming Shimei. It is abundantly manifest 
that Shimei's cursing was the "foaming out" of 
diabolical wickedness, in itself altogether unpro- 
voked and inexcusable, and of course an affront to 
the holiness of God ; and yet David, in the exercise 
of meekness, humility, faith, and wisdom testifies, 
" Let him alone and let him curse, for the Lord hath 
bidden him." 2 Sam. xvi. 11. The following 
chapter clearly shows that the impressions made on 
22 



254 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

our minds in the exercise of reason, by advice 
offered, are equally under the dominion of providence. 
The counsel of Ahithophel would have been fatal 
to David. It would have secured the throne to 
Absalom ; and he and his counsellors were at first 
unanimous in the opinion that it should be adopted. 
But the Lord had determined otherwise, and accord- 
ingly he is moved to call in Hushai. And even to 
us the counsel of the latter seems quite as probable 
and far more safe. At all events it was followed, 
and the purpose of God accomplished in the swift 
destruction of the unnatural and rebellious son. 2 
Sam. xvii. 14. " The king's heart is in the hand 
of the Lord ; as the rivers of water, he turneth it 
whithersoever he will. ,, Prov. xxi. 1. 

Now, in the ordinary course of God's dealings 
with nations and with individual men, his providence 
is not less wonderfully at work than of old. But 
we have not the hand of the divine Revealer to lift 
the veil. God works most when he is least thought 
of. All the elements are under his control ; he sends 
the winds out of his treasury ; he calls to the light- 
nings and they say, "Here are we!" "Hegiveth 
snow like wool ; he scattereth the hoar-frost like 
ashes;" Ps. cxlvii. 16; he rules over the apparently 
lawless waves of the sea ; he tells them when to rage, 
and when to be calm as a sleeping infant. There are 
times when a great moral purpose is visibly accom- 
plished by a seasonable and striking movement of 
the elements, in which the agency of God is as un- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 255 

deniable, as immediate as it was in the annals of 
ancient Israel. In the dispersion of the fleets of 
the Spanish Armada, proudly called the Invincible, 
who can deny that the hand of God was as plainly 
revealed for the preservation of the true gospel in 
England, as it ever had been for the confusion of 
the idolatry of Baal or of Ashtaroth ? Who but 
the Lord of all the earth raised that tempest, which 
scattered the ships of Spain, confounded the counsels 
of the Pope, and dashed the hopes of Philip ? Who 
but God alone ? And let us, American freemen, 
never forget that more than once, in the darkest 
hours of our Revolutionary struggle, God appeared 
as our helper and guardian. Just when the bravest 
began to fear, and the most sanguine to despond, 
some seasonable and surprising turn would take 
place in our affairs, plainly marked with the finger 
of God. And he who observes that most remark- 
able movement in its causes, course, and conse- 
quences, in the passions and errors, which pre- 
cipitated it, in the marvellous meeting of happy con- 
tingencies in its progress, and its unforeseen and 
even now incalculable results, cannot but adore the 
wonder-working providence of God. 

The ancient Greeks greatly erred in multiplying 
divinities, assigning its peculiar deity to fountain 
and shade, to land and sea, to earth and air, to the 
household and hearthstone ; and yet there was a 
great truth underlying this superstition. The truth 
was the all-pervading, ever-active, every where 



256 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

present providence of the one living and true God. 
We should learn to recognize God's providence 
in the familiar history of families and individuals. 
But how stupidly blind are we for the most part ! 
God sends sickness, but he is little thought of. We 
can explain the operation of second causes. We 
can show the connection between our exposure to 
the sun, our imprudence in diet, our over exertion 
of mind or body, our excessive and wasting anx- 
ieties, and the visitations which followed. But we 
cannot see the hand and counsel of God in the 
matter. Now, if the Bible were to write the history 
of the case, how different would it seem, how differ- 
ently would it sound ! It would then be God that 
sent that sickness, God that saw fit to try you with 
those inward, disquieting fears, God that caused you 
to undergo those violent fatigues; for the Bible 
makes him the Lord of sickness and health, of life 
and death. Not to own the hand of God in these 
daily events, is not philosophy but unbelief. It is 
rank impiety. It is absolute atheism. Who denies 
the operation of second causes ? Not the Scriptures 
most assuredly. But they affirm the sovereign rule 
of providence over them, his infinite wisdom in 
ordering and bounding them, in the accomplishment 
of his gracious purpose in them and by them. God 
takes away a son or a father, but the veil is not 
lifted. You can see to a certain distance. You 
can understand the operation of certain visible 
causes, certain material agencies. But every man's 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 257 

life has two histories, a secret and an open. Every 
event has two interpretations, a material and a 
spiritual. It may be all true, that your son or your 
father died, in consequence of certain remedial 
agents being neglected, or postponed, or inaccessible, 
in consequence of a certain state of the atmosphere 
concurring with a certain state of the system, which 
developed or induced disease. But why stop there ? 
All this an atheist might own. A Christian 
believes much more; he rejoices to think that 
beneath and behind this veil of second causes, of 
visible and material agencies, there was an invisible 
and intelligent agent at work, and that agent, his 
almighty Friend, his heavenly Father. Is there 
anything unreasonable in such a creed ? anything 
delusive or unworthy in such comfort ? 

It is to those of us who hope and trust in God, a 
truly delightful thought, that he can make not only 
the marked and memorable events of life conduce 
to our salvation and redound to his glory ; but the 
small trials, the petty vexations, the insignificant 
provocations and perplexities. Filial confidence in 
the providence of God is essential to happiness in 
a world like ours, full of mystery and change. And 
a Christian's cheerfulness depends very much on 
the objects of his habitual contemplation. If a man 
look, first and most, at the number, force, malice, and 
subtlety of his enemies, the various difficulties in 
the way of his ultimate salvation, he may well be 
despondent. But let him look at the perfections, 
22* 



258 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

promises, and providence of God, at the person and 
work and grace of the Redeemer, at the steadfast- 
ness of the covenant and the fulness of the Spirit, 
and he may well hope and rejoice. The strength 
of the everlasting Jehovah is mine, because I can 
lay hold of it by faith and prayer. We are espe- 
cially to admire the wisdom of God in his methods 
of providence and in answering prayer. He is re- 
vealed in Scripture and known in experience to 
answer " the effectual fervent prayers" of his 
pleading people, even while they are ascending to 
heaven, as in the case of Daniel, Danl. ix. 20-27; 
on the day of Pentecost, Acts ii; when the 
church prayed without ceasing unto God for Peter, 
Acts xii. 3-9; when Paul and Silas prayed and 
sang praises unto God, Acts xvi. 25-40. But if 
this were invariably the case, it would doubtless 
come to be looked upon, as in some way necessary 
and mechanical, like the ordinary operations of 
nature and providence. Thus the supernatural 
character of God's answers to prayer is kept up ; 
and the faith of his elect vindicated and fostered. 

The history of the church is the record of suc- 
cessive wonders, when we regard the signal and 
seasonable deliverances which she has experienced, 
as the interpositions of God. In ancient days, her 
apostles were supernaturally inspired with the know- 
ledge of the truth, for her instruction and comfort. 
They were warned by significant dreams and vis- 
ions of impending dangers, and of the best methods 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 259 

of escape. They were admonished by revelation, 
when to make a journey, whither to go, and what 
should be the issue of a hazardous or dubious enter- 
prise. Acts xvi. 9, xxvii. 23 ; Gal. ii. 2 ; Acts x. xi. 
xv. 2. It is a very signal illustration of the provi- 
dence of God toward his church, that the occasions, 
the scope, and the structure of the apostolic Epis- 
tles, should have been such as to afford permanent 
instruction, touching the most important doctrines, 
the most dangerous heresies, the most mischievous 
disorders, the most excellent graces, the administra- 
tion of discipline, the duty of ministers, the obliga- 
tions of men to the civil authorities, and all the 
relative duties, springing from the constitution of 
human society, and the various offices of father, 
husband, master, embracing and prescribing the 
correlative duties of children, wives, and servants. 

At different periods in later ages, the divine de- 
posit of the true doctrine has been threatened and 
imperilled ; but God has raised up able and faithful 
men to define and defend it — men who could bring 
the pearls profoundly hidden in the depths of Scrip- 
ture into open day, and clearly interpret for her 
own recognition and rejoicing, the common con- 
sciousness of the Christian church. Who can read 
the history of the apostolic conferences, and not see 
that they were presided over by the infallible Spirit 
of the living God ? Who can consider the course 
of later and uninspired Christian councils — note the 
disturbing agencies at work among them, the natural 



260 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

darkness of the human mind, and its strange proclivity 
to error, and then see the clearness, the accuracy, 
the subtlety, with which exceedingly difficult and 
delicate, but withal, most precious and vital doctrines 
were affirmed and illustrated, were stated and 
established, so that all succeeding Christians have 
found those early symbols and confessions the best 
expositions of the common faith, and have been 
utterly unable to improve upon them, or to go beyond 
them ; who, I say, can consider these things, and deny 
the supreme and gracious providence of God ? The 
same all-wise and beneficent Being, who has furnished 
antidotes where poisons grow, has sent forth cham- 
pions of truth to meet the teachers of error, has sum- 
moned an Athanasius to bear witness to the Divinity 
of our blessed Lord against the god-denying heresy 
of Arius, and an Augustine to vindicate the doctrines 
of grace against the proud and pestilent teachings of 
Pelagius. The same gracious providence that raised 
up the Apostle Paul like a pyramid of fire from the 
ashes of his martyr Stephen — sent forth in succes- 
sive ages, fathers, confessors, reformers, and mar- 
tyrs to bear witness to the truth, in a day of trouble, 
and rebuke, and blasphemy ! 

God's providence appears, in so ordering all 
things — the most trivial and minute, the most un- 
welcome and painful, things seemingly most adverse 
and injurious — as to secure the salvation of his chosen. 
His natural and gracious sovereignty over all ele- 
ments, agents, events, causes, and effects, is glori- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 261 

ously exercised in doing just what is needful, what 
is wisest and best to accomplish the end in view — 
sending trouble when and where and in the form, 
in which it will be most efficacious, causing his Holy 
Spirit to co-operate with his providence, working 
within by his grace on the thoughts, the feelings, the 
convictions of the soul, so as most effectually to 
draw it to himself and bind it fast in chains of hea- 
venly love. These chains, woven by the hand of 
God, are willingly worn; instead of being detested as 
the badges of servitude, the soul rejoices in them as 
her ornament and strength. " Thy people shall be 
willing in the day of thy power." " All things 
work together for good to them that love God, to 
them that are the called according to his purpose." 

We know of no employment, more appropriate 
and delightful, than thus to contemplate God, exe- 
cuting in the whole course of his visible providence 
the secret purposes of his grace. And if we had 
an inspired interpreter of the mysteries which we 
meet with here, we should doubtless often discover 
a benevolent purpose where now all seems dark, 
and discern an intelligent Agent presiding over the 
apparently casual and capricious agencies of nature. 

Even now, obscure as the dispensations of God 
confessedly are, in regard to particular events, yet 
reason and faith, enlightened by the divine word 
and Spirit, can suggest general considerations to 
console the pious under the heaviest afflictions. It 
is enough for us to know that God has command of 



262 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

all, and that he loves his people with an infinite 
love ; therefore, we may conclude assuredly, that he 
bestows on them as much of all kinds of temporal 
good as they can bear. At the period of life which 
infallible wisdom judges best for them, they gain or 
lose, they grow rich or become poor, they are 
ruddy with health or are wan with pining sickness ; 
their children and brethren are about them, or they 
are put away in silence and darkness. Yet what- 
ever happens they know is for the best, so far as 
they are concerned. Some, it cannot be doubted, 
get to heaven with poverty and trial, who never 
would get there with prosperity and plenty. There- 
fore, the apostle includes death as well as life in his 
schedule of the saint's treasures. If we could see 
the marvellous means which God employs to bring 
men to repentance, we should be amazed. Some, 
as Henry Martyn's friend, by a casual reproof, the 
effect of which, we might have imagined, would have 
been quite different. The government of all men 
and all events is going on to gather in the elect of 
God. 

The ultimate end of God's dealings with his own 
children, is to empty them of self that they may be 
filled with his fulness. This every believer is made 
at last to feel, and does in his heart acknowledge. 
At death and in the near prospect of eternity, 
he is truly thankful for bodily pains, for bodily 
sickness, for trouble in his family, for pecuniary 
loss, for disappointed hopes, if such has been their 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 263 

fruit, if this has been their glad and golden issue. 
His disciplined heart, his purified spirit says, Be 
thou exalted, Lord, by me, though I suffer and die 
for it ! 

So strong is our corruption, so entrenched is 
selfishness within us, that this sad discipline is often 
sorely needed, nay, is often indispensable. Even zeal 
to be actively employed in God's service may de- 
generate into sinful impatience. We may glorify 
God by waiting the time his providence shall ap- 
point. " He that believeth shall not make haste." 
When the cloud abode upon the Tabernacle, the 
children of Israel rested in their tents ; Num. ix. 
18; and it would have been rebellion in them to 
have hasted on, even to the promised land. This 
may comfort those who are cut off from active use- 
fulness, and temper the rash zeal of the inexperi- 
enced. 

The discipline of sorrow is to many the gateway 
to heaven. As a physician is obliged to keep a 
patient on low diet, who is consumed with a rag- 
ing fever, and is often forced to reduce his system 
by blood-letting, so our Divine Physician of the 
soul is many times compelled to keep his people 
low by poverty, sickness, reproach, bereavement, 
and even the absence of a confident sense of his 
favour, lest they be consumed by the fire of pride, 
vain glory, lust, or anger. Therefore, " whom he 
loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom 
he receiveth. ,, The more a man is fortified by 



264 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

wealth, and health, and earthly good, the less 
direct apparently is his dependence on God, and 
the less sensible of it is he. These gifts interpose 
between the heavenly Giver and the soul so liberally 
supplied ; and instead of leading him to worship 
God with discerning eye and grateful heart, they 
too often cause him, like the foolish king of Baby- 
lon, to glory as if they were the work of his own 
hands, as if he were himself God: "Is not this great 
Babylon that I have built for the house of the 
kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the 
honour of my majesty ?" Danl. iv. 30. 

Modesty in our judgments, concerning the provi- 
dence of God, is intimately connected with the 
exercise of charity toward others, and the enjoy- 
ment of peace in our own minds. It is confessedly 
mysterious now. It is only partially unveiled here. 
But it is, therefore, the best discipline of the most 
excellent virtues, faith, patience, humility, forbear- 
ance, and brotherly love. As he is justly reckoned 
a faithful friend, who maintains the honour of his 
friend, not only when it is aspersed by the ignor- 
ant, the envious, and the malicious, but when it is 
really obscured by unaccountable conduct ; so he 
is the most faithful friend of God, who believes and 
teaches that his way is perfect, even when his path 
is in the deep, and his footsteps are not known ; 
and who, amid the clouds and darkness that now 
invest his providence to mortal ken, is still assured 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 265 

and still proclaims that righteousness and judgment 
are the habitation of his throne. 

The doctrine of Providence may justly be re- 
garded as a sort of test doctrine, the reception or 
rejection of which determines a man's religious 
character ; for no doctrine is more explicitly affirmed 
by Christ, and none is more truly grateful to one 
who has imbibed the spirit of Christ. Our Saviour 
makes the providence of his heavenly Father to be 
in the moral world, what the law of gravitation is in 
the natural — all-comprehensive, and everywhere 
operating ; extending to the majestic march of the 
heavenly hosts, and to the flower which to-day is, and 
to-morrow is cast into the oven ; to the flight of a 
sparrow and the falling of a hair ; and to all the 
interests, temporal and spiritual, personal and rela- 
tive, for time and eternity, of all his people ! And 
what more natural to a child of God, than to receive 
that doctrine, so full of solemn cheer, that tells him 
he is ever walking under his heavenly Father's eye; 
that wheresoever he may wander beneath the cope 
of heaven, he is still within a charmed circle, which 
that Father's gracious presence ever fills ; and that, 
although to the uninstructed heart and to the unan- 
ointed eye, all may seem cheerless and casual, dis- 
ordered and dark, it is his sacred privilege to dis- 
cern the form of one like unto the Son of God, 
even in the furnace of affliction ; and when he is 
made to triumph over his enemies by any visible 
23 



266 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

and intermediate agency, it is his and his alone to 
discern the helping band of his gracious Father ! * 

* It is gratifying to observe how uniformly Washington 
recognized the overruling providence of God, and in the 
most explicit terms, as at the discovery of Arnold's trea- 
son : Irving's Life of Washington, vol. iv. pp. 162, 436, 
508, &c. " When I contemplate the interposition of Pro- 
vidence, as it was visibly manifested, in guiding us through 
the Revolution, in preparing us for the reception of the 
general government, and in conciliating the good will of 
the people of America toward one another after its adop- 
tion, I feel myself oppressed and almost overwhelmed 
with a sense of divine munificence ." 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 267 



LECTURE XIII. 

SOVEREIGN GRACE, THE SINNER'S HOPE. 

If we had a wise spirit, we should be filled with 
love and wonder and worship, with thanksgiving 
and deep gladness, in a world of beauty like this, 
when we look at the bright birds and hear their 
sweet song, and see them gracefully hopping from 
bough to bough, and gaily disporting themselves in 
the pleasant sunshine ; when we see the many- 
coloured beauties of the skies, and the soft green 
of the grassy landscape, and the deep shade of the 
full-leaved trees. Oh ! how good and loving must 
our heavenly Father be ! Then to think, that all 
these are in a world of sin and woe, and that he has 
sent his Son to save, and to save by dying ! " For 
when we were yet without strength, in due time 
Christ died for the ungodly." " This is a faithful 
saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners." " For 
God so loved the world, that he gave his only-be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not 
perish but have everlasting life." " For thy name's 



268 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

sake, Lord, pardon mine iniquity for it is great." 
" Come now and let us reason together, saith the 
Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be 
as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, 
they shall be as wool." Rom. v. 6; 1 Tim. i. 15; 
Jahn iii. 16 ; Ps. xxv. 11 ; Isa. i. 18. 

These several passages, taken from the Old 
Testament, as well as the New, set forth : first, the 
ground ; secondly, the extent of forgiveness. Sal- 
vation for sinners is in all its parts and provisions 
undeserved and extraordinary. From the beginning 
to the end, from Alpha to Omega, from Genesis to 
Revelation, from its first and eternal inception in 
the divine mind, through every period and by every 
process of development, it is the motion and off- 
spring of sovereign grace. The moving cause of 
our salvation is in God and not in man. It is in 
the inaccessible and adorable depths of the divine 
nature, that we are to search for the reason and 
ground of the plan, which restores weak, corrupt, 
and apostate man to the image and enjoyment of 
God. If we wish to know how it is and why it is, 
that we are to be saved, by what instrument and for 
what cause, we must look away from ourselves and 
glance our eyes upwards to God. " Even so, Father, 
for so it seemed good in thy sight." 

The petitioner for pardon is to base his plea, not 
on anything in himself, but only on what is in God, 
on God's revelation of what he is in himself, and 
what he has done for the sinner. On the name of 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 269 

God and on that alone, the sinner is to base his 
hope and urge his plea. This he is to put in the 
forefront of all, as an ample shield, an invincible 
argument, an adequate answer to all objections, a 
final solution of all difficulties. This he is to take 
as a broad and strong foundation to build upon. 
" For his name's sake." If allowed to plant himself 
on this ground, the Devil himself might pray. No 
sinner, how great soever his sin, need fear, need 
despair of finding mercy, if only he have a warrant 
from God to use this argument, "for thy name's 
sake." And the only reason, why the prince of the 
power of the air, by whatever name known, Beel- 
zebub, Apollyon, Satan, or Belial, cannot be par- 
doned and reinstated in his forfeited throne, in his 
lost dominion, is that he cannot pray this prayer. 
He cannot urge this plea. He is not permitted to 
build upon this foundation. 

Let us proceed to survey this ground, to consider 
this foundation more closely. What is meant and 
what is said in that form of speech, " for thy name's 
sake ?" What are we to understand by the name 
of God ? It is a comprehensive phrase, expressing 
the general sum of the divine perfections. Now it 
is not for the glory of the divine perfections, that 
Satan should be pardoned. It is for the glory of 
the divine perfections, that he should be punished ; 
and accordingly there has been a special, an ample, 
an awful provision made for his punishment, none 
for his pardon. For him and his rebellious crew 
23* 



270 

have the deep foundations of hell been digged, fire 
and brimstone, which the breath of the Lord doth 
kindle, have been abundantly prepared. " There is 
weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth," "where 
their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched." 
Mark ix. 46. There no love, no light, no mercy, no 
mitigation, not a moment's ease, not a moment's 
respite is ever known ; but only terror, and dark- 
ness, and remorse, and wretchedness, and ruin, and 
despair, whatever is known or dreamed of or possible, 
whatever men imagine of wild, and horrible, and 
loathsome, and hideous, and hateful, is there. 
And it is there expressly for him and for such as 
are like him. 

" Then shall he say also unto them on the left 
hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlast- 
ing fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," 
Matt. xxv. 41 ; his followers, his dupes, his victims, 
among the former hosts of heaven and among the 
children of men, the apostate, corrupt, impenitent 
children of men. For it is the truth of God, and it 
ought to be told and believed and pondered and 
acted on, that all who die in their sins, dwell for 
ever in hell, with devils and damned spirits. 

In their intolerable and eternal torments, these 
all glorify the power and justice, the holiness and 
truth of God. These are the attributes which lost 
spirits, whether of men or devils, illustrate ; but these 
are not all the attributes of God. They are a part, 
but not all that is embraced in his " name." When 



Y0UNO MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 271 

that glorious Name is uttered they do come forth 
but not alone, not dissociated, not dissevered from 
the rest. All the attributes and all the perfections 
of God are collected and concentred and expressed 
in his Name. Holiness, justice, power, faithfulness, 
and truth are there, but along with them come 
trooping, other attributes, other perfections and 
such as accompany and promise salvation for penitent 
sinners, love, goodness, mercy, and grace. These 
all blend and shine in the redemption which is in 
Christ Jesus, our Lord, in the expressive Name of 
Jehovah, each with its proper and separate glory, 
all in undivided and united splendour, " with a far 
beaming blaze of majesty," as several colours in the 
rainbow, each distinguishable yet all harmonious, 
and each lending its separate ray to the one efful- 
gent glory. The Name of God, therefore, compre- 
hends all his adorable perfections, his love and 
grace, not less than his holiness and power ; and 
when we are allowed to make our appeal to the 
Name of God for pardon, we are permitted to call 
to our help Jehovah himself, in the full glory of his 
being, in the entire circle of his attributes, in the 
unfathomable fulness of his nature, in his essential 
unity, in his tripersonal subsistence; not only as our 
Creator and Lord, but as our Redeemer and Sa- 
viour. 

We are shut up to the gospel method of salva- 
tion, because we have the profound conviction, that 
God does demand and can demand nothing less 



272 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

than perfect holiness, and we are sensible that we 
can never attain it, that at no happy conjuncture of 
our lives can we hope to exhibit it, unless by the 
gospel method, the free and full forgiveness of our 
sins, the regeneration of our corrupt nature, the 
sanctification and renewal of all our faculties 
through the effectual working of the Holy Ghost ; 
and as the answer of all the law's demands, the im- 
puted righteousness of God himself, in the person 
of our atoning Saviour. 

Let us, therefore, consider the extent of forgive- 
ness. After what has been said on the import of 
the Name of God — the proper and only ground of 
the pardon of any sin ; it is hoped, that we can see 
how any sin which man can commit may be for- 
given, which does not by its nature preclude this 
plea. The greatness of the sin is really no bar, it 
may on the contrary be an argument, for its remis- 
sion. We feel, that we are now treading on the 
perilous edge of a high truth, from which unreason- 
able and wicked men may fall into a yawning and 
infinite abyss ; but it is a truth, nevertheless, and 
" let God be true and every man a liar." There is no 
sin, however great, which may not be pardoned "for 
his Name's sake," if it be repented of truly. The 
sin against the Holy Ghost is unpardonable, be- 
cause it is of such a nature as to exclude repentance. 
It is to be constantly borne in mind that it was not 
on the ground that he had made a full confession, 
that the Psalmist implored and anticipated pardon. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 273 

The celebrated French deist, Rousseau, after mak- 
ing a shameful and sickening confession of his lies, 
and libertinism, and thefts, and manifold baseness, 
said that he would present this record of his life 
before the bar of God, in the confident anticipation, 
that a full confession would be accepted as a full 
atonement. But the pious Psalmist thought, and 
felt, and acted far otherwise. The greatness of the 
sin did not indeed cut off the hope of pardon ; but 
that hope was founded not on anything that he had 
done or could do, but simply on the Name of God, 
attended and attested by a godly sorrow for sin. 
The promises of Scripture to the true penitent, are 
such as may reasonably inspire hope in the chief of 
sinners. " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son 
cleanseth us from all sin, and if any man sin we 
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the 
righteous." The very design of our Lord's com- 
ing into the world is declared to have been, not 
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance; 
and of old it was made a ground of accusation 
against him, that he received sinners and ate with 
them. 

Rightly understood and proceeded on, however, 
this great truth, like every truth of Scripture, is 
not only innocent but highly profitable. What is 
repentance ? and what is it to repent ? It is to be 
truly sorry for sin, to wish it had never been 
committed, to hate it from the heart, to turn from 
it, to keep clear of it, as far as possible in all time 



274 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

to come ; and all this is wrought in the heart of 
a sinner by the word and Spirit of God, and is 
attended by a trust in the mercy of God in Christ. 
The discriminating mark of a true penitent is, not 
that he avoids gross transgressions from the force 
of natural conscience, still less from respect to 
human opinion ; but that he hates pollution, that he 
strives after holiness, that the personal conscious- 
ness of sin, whether known to another or not, is his 
grief and burden. Physical filth is not so intolera- 
bly loathsome to a person of purity and sensibility, 
as moral pollution to a real penitent, a servant and 
a saint of God. It is necessary not only to confess 
our sins, but to mourn for them, and not only to 
mourn for them, but to forsake them. Confession 
alone will not be followed by forgiveness, on the 
part of God, or by forsaking them on our part. There 
is no such mark of being a child of God by gracious 
adoption as the love of holiness, inward sighing, and 
striving after it. To be contented in the habit of 
sin, or with constantly recurring sins, as want of 
humility and fervency in our prayers, wandering 
of heart at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and 
the decay of brotherly love, is a sure sign, if not 
of the total want of grace, at least of its feebleness. 
If we truly love Christ himself, we shall love his 
people, his cause, his church, his work. The love 
of the Lord Jesus Christ is inconsistent with the 
love of sin, and as the one prevails, the other inev- 
itably declines. So far as the permanent interests 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 275 

of virtue and morality are concerned, therefore, no 
matter how great a man's sins, if he really, truly, 
scripturally repent of them, there is no damage 
done to these high interests when he is forgiven. 
They are rather honoured and fortified. For if a 
man is a true penitent, he can not willingly commit 
these sins a second time, of which he has repented. 
David was a true penitent ; did he murder another 
Uriah ? Peter was a true penitent ; did he deny his 
Divine Master after he had gone out and wept bit- 
terly ? Augustine was a true penitent ; did he go 
back to his lies, and his libertinism, and to his old 
errors in philosophy and religion ? Luther, Calvin, 
Zwingle, Knox, and Cranmer, were true penitents ; did 
they return to the cruel and debasing superstitions 
of Rome ? 

Those men who are always repenting and always 
sinning, confessing before God and man that what 
they do is wrong, and still doing the same things 
over again, never have repented at all. Rightly 
understood then, not only is this doctrine consistent 
with the sacred interests of morality and piety, not 
only is it, in no way, repugnant to them, but in 
every way conducive, and altogether essential. If 
you wish to make a man a villain, a real, thorough, 
hardened, hopeless villain, all that you have to do is 
to let him commit one criminal and infamous offence, 
and then take away the hope of mercy, the possi- 
bility of his ever being restored to the respect and 
confidence of his fellows. Once make it plain to 



276 THE TRUE PATH, 'OR THE 

him that he must always be an outcast, no matter 
what he is, no matter what he does, and you have 
accomplished your object. You have made that 
man a reprobate for ever. You have broken the 
very spring of honour within. For true honour is 
based on an enlightened self-respect. You have 
poisoned the sweet fountain of humanity, and taught 
him to hate, and as much as he can to hurt man- 
kind. You have razed to the very ground, the last 
foundation of virtue and real greatness of soul. 
You have demolished the whole structure of moral 
worth within him, and have not left a solitary peg, 
for a good principle, or purpose, or feeling to hang 
upon. This is the main reason why, when a woman 
once falls, her recovery is so difficult and rare ; 
so close is the bond between a good reputation and 
a good character. But if you make it plain to the 
man that he may be restored to the respect of others 
by his repentance, established beyond all dispute 
by his change of conduct, the way is then open to 
him to be restored to his own self-respect, and so to 
recover his moral integrity. We may reasonably 
conclude therefore, that the forgiveness of great sins, 
on the condition of a true repentance — and none 
are ever forgiven on any other condition — is in no 
way detrimental to the high interests of morality, 
but on the contrary, their strong support and guard. 
That which shuts up the devils themselves to eternal 
infamy and anguish and rebellion is the certainty, 
that for them there is no forgiveness. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 277 

The pardon of the greatest sinner on such grounds 
and with such consequences, reflects peculiar honour 
on the divine perfections. His mercy then appears 
high as the heavens, equal to, yea greater than, 
the subtlety and malice and power of the devil, 
his enemy and ours. His wisdom and love in pro- 
viding a Saviour then shine out in sovereign 
majesty, in surpassing splendour. The blood of 
Christ is then seen to be powerful and precious, 
infinitely exceeding in efficacy the blood of bulls 
and goats, though whole hecatombs were slain — vain 
sacrifice for human guilt ! 

We have seen how the general interests of truth 
and righteousness are affected by the exercise of 
grace in the forgiveness of great sins, and how the 
perfections of God stand related to it ; now let us 
see what effect it will have on the sinner himself. 
This has been partially anticipated already, suffi- 
ciently to render it proper to dismiss the matter 
briefly, but not to pass it over altogether. 

Fortunately for us, this is what the lawyers would 
call a case ruled. The judge has pronounced upon 
it. The highest court has explicitly and authori- 
tatively decided it. When that sinful but penitent 
woman brought an alabaster-box full of precious 
ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, 
and began to wash his feet with tears, and to wipe 
them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet 
and anointed them with the ointment ; our Lord 
said, " Her sins which are many are forgiven, there- 
24 



278 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

fore she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven 
the same loveth little." Luke vii. 38-47. 

There is therefore no bar in the way of the salva- 
tion of the greatest sinner but that which his own 
obstinate, self-destroying impenitence creates. The 
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross is 
of power to atone for the greatest and blackest 
iniquities. It cleanseth from all sin. It availed 
for the pardon of some who shed it, and it is of 
virtue sufficient to wash away your sins, horrible as 
they may have been ! Let not the number or the 
malignity of your offences drive you away from 
that life-giving fountain, which hath been opened to 
the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jeru- 
salem for sin and for uncleanness. Zech. xiii. 1. 
Jesus Christ " came not to call the righteous but 
sinners to repentance." Your sins are indeed nu- 
merous enough, heavy enough, aggravated enough, 
to crush your soul for ever, to sink you down to the 
lowest hell, but he is strong enough to bear the 
mighty load. They are weighty enough to crush a 
world, but he can bear them. He has borne them 
in his own body on the tree. Cast thy burden 
therefore upon him, and he will sustain thee. You 
must sink beneath the enormous load, unless the 
mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of 
Peace, take it away. He has endured the full 
weight of the wrath of God, on the bitter cross, that 
they who believe in him might be exempt from the 
operation of law, and be graciously accepted in the 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 279 

Beloved. Oppressed with sin, overwhelmed with 
grief and fear, offer then this prayer, if for the first 
time in all your life : " For thy name's sake par- 
don mine iniquity, Lord, for it is great.' ' In the 
whole Bible, you will not find a prayer better suited 
to you, a conscious and helpless sinner, unless it be 
the prayer of the publican, " God be merciful to me 
a sinner !" 

It should ever be remembered, that no sin, how- 
ever small it may seem to us, however small it may 
be comparatively considered, can be pardoned in 
any other way, on any other ground, than for the 
sake of what our blessed Lord has done and suffered 
for us. In relation to this point, two things are to 
be considered. The first is the deadly nature of 
the very least sin. The wages of sin, as sin, of any 
sin, is death. Though the sin committed or sup- 
posed, were the least conceivable, yet if unpardoned, 
God could punish it with nothing less than eternal 
death. Sin carries in it essentially, inevitably, 
always, the seed which when matured is death. The 
whole genesis of sin, moral and historical, in itself, 
in its working, and in its manifestation, is exhibited 
in the words of the apostle : " Lust when it hath con- 
ceived bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished 
bringeth forth death." Here then are the successive 
steps in the process — lust, sin, death. 

The second thing to be considered is, that when 
a man has once committed the least sin against God, 
he may regret it, he may rue it, but he can make 



280 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

no atonement for it. No power or virtue can go 
forth from him to satisfy God. If it is ever co- 
vered, it must be by forgiveness. If it is ever for- 
given, it must be, not for the sinner's sake, but for 
the sake of One not himself personally a sinner, but 
who has borne the penalty due to sin. The sinner 
himself can do absolutely nothing to satisfy law or 
justice, or to make amends for his offence against 
both. So that for the least sin we are shut up to a 
free forgiveness for the sake of Christ. It is evi- 
dent, then, that in relation to the terms and to the 
method of pardon, all sinners are upon a perfect 
level. The way of salvation is the same for all. 
All that enter heaven must pass through one door, 
and that door is Christ ; hy one way, and that way 
is Christ ; in the heartfelt reception of one truth, 
and that truth is Christ ; in the inward appropriation 
of one life, and that life is Christ. The pride of 
the best, and the most moral, and conscientious, and 
sober, and respectable sinner, must come down to 
the thankful acceptance of a free pardon for the 
sake of Christ, or he can never be pardoned at all. 
God pardons no sin because it is little, but because 
the blood of Jesus Christ, the atoning Saviour, is 
precious, and his merit infinite. 

It only remains for us to consider another truth 
nearly connected with this, or rather a different 
phase of this. As no sin, however great, will ex- 
clude us from the kingdom of heaven if we repent 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 281 

of it — none is so small as not to prove our everlast- 
ing perdition if unrepented of. 

Our self-righteousness is one of the deepest and 
most delusive forms of our sinful corruption. Satan, 
too, knows full well, how to turn it to fatal account. 
It works in various ways according to the former 
history and existing circumstances of the sinner. 
When a man who hitherto has been cautious and 
careful, and so has been able to keep on good terms 
with his own conscience, is once overtaken in a 
great transgression, commits some gross iniquity as 
adultery, lying, drunkenness, theft, or forgery, the 
devil seeks to persuade him, and often with fatal 
success, to give up in despair, to surrender all hope 
of salvation, to abandon the fear of God, to deny 
the faith of the gospel, and depart from the path 
of piety for ever. This is a most critical juncture 
in his spiritual history. If Satan can prevail upon 
him to do this, his damnation slumbereth not. But 
if he will confess his sin to God and forsake it, and 
trust in his mercy in Christ, and so far as man is 
concerned, make such restitution as the nature of 
the case may admit of, there is hope for him still, 
— he may yet be forgiven and saved. 

To sinners in other circumstances and of a differ- 
ent type, Satan presents a different temptation. 
He seeks to persuade them that it is unreasonable, 
that it is impossible that any should be consigned 
to the dark dungeons of everlasting despair, for 
stich sins as they have committed. Now what I 
24* 



282 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

have to say to such, is, that the least sin you can 
commit is large enough to banish you from heaven, 
and sink you down to hell, unless it be truly re- 
pented of and fully pardoned. There is absolutely 
no way of escape for any sinner but by that new and 
living way which Christ opened for us through the 
veil, that is to say, his flesh. " Wherefore he is able 
to save them to the uttermost that come unio God 
by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession 
for them." Heb. vii. 25. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 283 



LECTURE XIV. 

THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH. 

If we had a valuable estate in another country, 
should we not eagerly study any work relating to 
that country — describing its soil, climate, produc- 
tions, — the character of the inhabitants, together with 
their occupations and enjoyments, and examine with 
the greater accuracy and diligence whatever might 
more particularly refer to the title, tenure, interests, 
and value of our own personal estate ? Again, if we 
had a beloved friend or brother in that country, of 
whose history, and glory, and love, we wished to 
receive authentic intelligence, should we not ponder 
the volume containing the coveted information ? 
To the Christian, heaven is that country, salvation 
that estate, the Bible that volume, and Christ that 
friend and brother. 

The miser loves to retire, that he may feast his eyes 
with his " unsunned heaps"of perishable gold and 
silver. Why should not the heir of heaven itself, of a 
crown of righteousness that fadeth not away, of 



284 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

durable riches, gladly contemplate his precious and 
pleasant possessions — the inheritance of the saints in 
light? 

If we delight in humble and holy meditation here, 
in believing and fervent prayer, in lively and spir- 
itual praises to the God of our salvation, we may 
be assured that we have even now the taste and the 
temper which will render the services of the hea- 
venly sanctuary congenial ; when all sin shall be 
purged away, and we shall see God in his infinite 
glory, and serve him with ineffable delight ! 

One of the elements of interest and enjoyment 
in the heavenly state, will be wonder. God has 
crowded this world with brilliant and amazing ob- 
jects, for the very purpose of kindling an expecta- 
tion of greater wonders in the world to come. The 
broad sun sinking down in his tranquillity, the ocean, 
the mountains, the shifting and many-coloured clouds, 
the green sward, the happy and animated creatures 
— all excite a feeble interest in comparison with that 
which heaven will elicit; but they may serve to 
awaken within us the sense of God's power and glory, 
which will be so much heightened hereafter ! 

This present earth is temporary only. As man's 
body is mortal, and man dies because he is a sinner, 
so this tainted material universe, bearing the reflec- 
tion, being the scene of sin, shall die after a fashion, 
shall disappear and give place ultimately to an 
untainted and everlasting materialism — the new 
heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth right- 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 285 

eousness. It is sad to think, that the loveliest spots 
on this earth have been polluted by blood and by 
lust. The world endures, and is destined to endure, 
while the work of ingathering is going on, and is 
incomplete. It is a stage on which grand and suc- 
cessive acts of a divine drama are in progress. It 
is a temporary scaffolding which will be taken down 
when the spiritual temple has been reared and finished. 
Let the w T ork of redemption, in all its glorious extent, 
be accomplished, let the last wandering and way- 
worn sinner be gathered into the fold and rest of 
God, and this will be the signal of the consumma- 
tion of all things here below. The exulting and 
triumphant anthem with which ministering spirits 
shall celebrate the ingathering of the last of the 
sons of men who shall be the heir of salvation, may 
be regarded as the requiem of the world's destruction. 
The closing chapters of divine revelation contain 
a magnificent description of the passing away of the 
old heavens and the old earth, and the glorious evo- 
lution of the new. The change from the dreariness 
and death of winter, to the cheerful green and 
bursting life of spring, is gradual. The change 
from the gloomy reign of night to the clear shining 
of the perfect day, when the morning is spread 
upon the mountains, is more rapid ; but the morn- 
ing-light does not transform or transfigure. It 
only illuminates and reveals. It shines upon the 
very same earth, that a few hours before was 
wrapped in the mantle of darkness. Here there is not 



286 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

a mere illumination, not even a glorious transfigura- 
tion, but a passing away of the one and a coming of 
the other, a removal and a substitution. Old things 
have passed away, behold all things have become new. 
There is now no more sea. The new Jerusalem, 
the redeemed, triumphant, and glorified church, 
comes down from God out of heaven. The marriage 
of the Lamb and his bride is about to be solemnized 
with the festive pomp and splendour, that befit 
the nuptials of the King's Son, and his unspotted 
and beloved bride. Then a mighty voice is heard, 
proclaiming the permanent abode of God with men, 
the ratification, the renewal, and the fulfilment of 
his gracious covenant. God himself shall be with 
them and be their God. Then will be fulfilled in 
its highest significance, our Saviour's intercessory 
prayer for his people — that they might be with 
him and behold his glory, the glory which he had 
with the Father before the world. John xvii. 5. 

This is the prelude and the preparation. Then 
drawing nearer still, the Father's hand is stretched 
out, and touches and blesses them in their own 
persons. Before the original creation of man, the 
earth was prepared to receive him, and before the 
final blessedness of redeemed man, the new heavens 
and the new earth, his destined and glorious habi- 
tation, are fitted to receive him. Then the blessing 
comes upon him, the exceeding and eternal weight 
of glory, the honour and the happiness which flow 
from the immediate ministrations of the Father of 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 287 

mercies and God of all comfort. He himself wipes 
away all tears from their eyes, with the gentleness 
of parental love. He removes all occasion of re- 
morse, disquiet, and anxiety. He buries in eternal 
oblivion the bitter memory of grief, save as it may 
purify and exalt the present sense of joy. And 
when these tears are wiped away, they are wiped 
away for ever. Not only the channel but the foun- 
tain of weeping is dried up. Now the reign of 
sorrow and of death hath ceased, and that of joy 
and of immortality commenced. Death himself is 
dead, and all his gloomy and hideous progeny, 
sorrow and crying, which is the outburst of sorrow, 
and pain, which is the eldest born of toil — these 
have all departed never more to return. 

It might be imagined that the Christian heaven 
would be the point, to which the eyes of the men of 
every land and nation would be turned with an 
eager and incessant gaze. It is described as the 
everlasting abode of untroubled peace, where the 
wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at 
rest ; as a sanctuary from which every thing profane 
and polluted, is rigorously shut out ; as the region 
and the home of pure devotion and of perfect love ; 
as the fitting palace of the everlasting King, in 
whose presence there is fulness of joy, and at whose 
right hand there are pleasures for ever more. The 
Bible does not give these descriptions, in order to 
excite a dream of Epicurean delight, but to animate 
us in the pursuit of a pure and perennial bliss ; to 



288 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

assuage the sharp sense of present anguish ; to dis- 
robe this world of its fatal attractions; to raise us in 
spirit and in striving above what is seen and tem- 
poral, and engage our deepest thoughts and elicit 
our most strenuous efforts in the prosecution of ob- 
jects unseen and eternal. 

But does the revelation of this glorious rest ani- 
mate us to incessant activity in the discharge of our 
earthly duties ? Does the pleasant prospect which 
it unfolds render us insensible to the allurements 
of carnal pleasure? Do our thoughts habitually 
and delightedly turn to the serene enjoyments of 
our spiritual rest, when vexed with the countless 
cares of this present life ? Do we find a readiness 
and a capacity within us to appropriate the exceed- 
ing great and precious promises, that God in his 
infinite mercy has made to the way-worn pilgrim ? 
Do the sublime glimpses which revelation affords us 
of that house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens, inspire us with undaunted courage to con- 
tend with every enemy, and press at every hazard 
into the heavenly kingdom ? It is true, we cannot 
see heaven with our bodily eyes, any more than we 
can see the glorious God of heaven. But as it is 
our duty to endure as seeing him who is invisible, 
so it is our part, not having seen this goodly 
possession, still to desire it and believe, though as 
yet we behold it not, that God hath prepared for us 
a heavenly city, and is not ashamed to be called our 
God. 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 289 

The prospect of eternal glory should inflame our 
imaginations and our hearts. If the portals of hea- 
ven's sanctuary were thrown open to our enraptured 
gaze, and we could see the glowing ardours of the 
Seraphim, and listen to those harmonious notes 
that vibrate on the harps of gold, and fall prostrate 
with the hosts that bow in lowly reverence before 
"the throne and equipage of God's almightiness, ,, 
we should be filled with a kindred worship and rap- 
ture and love. 

It is not then merely a spiritual luxury, a feast 
of the imagination and the soul, to contemplate the 
final blessedness of this renovated scene, of paradise 
regained, the revealed glory of the new heavens and 
the new earth ; it is not merely a transporting plea- 
sure to think of heaven, to speak of heaven, to hear 
of heaven ; but well and wisely considered, it is in 
the highest degree profitable. Such a contempla- 
tion, when scriptural and sober, will abound with 
moral lessons addressed to the conscience, it will 
lend most effectual aid to the daily discipline of our 
hearts and lives, while it will animate the soul with 
the most delightful prospects, and stimulate Christian 
zeal and spiritual diligence with the most attractive 
and holy visions — visions of a beauty far more beau- 
teous, of a glory far more glorious, than ever burst 
upon the eye or beamed upon the heart of mortal 
man. It is to us a token and a sample of the un- 
imaginable fruitfulness of the promised land, like 
the grapes of Eshcol. It is a premonition of the 
25 



290 THE TRUE PATH, OR TnE 

coming bliss, like the perfumed gales that blow far 
off from the Spice Islands, and encourage the tempest- 
tost mariner in his sore conflict with the rocks and 
waves. 

The gracious design of these glorious revelations, 
is to comfort afflicted believers under the hard pres- 
sure of earthly ills, to cast the light of promise and 
of hope over the deep darkness of God's dispensa- 
tions toward them now, to make them joyful in all 
tribulations, and instant in prayer, a knowing in 
themselves that they have in heaven a better and 
an enduring substance." Heb. x. 34. 

It is a foolish and wicked abuse for carnal per- 
sons, whether in the church or out of the church, to 
take the children's bread ; to appropriate the cheer, 
the wine, and oil, and pleasant fruits, the mountains 
of myrrh and hills of frankincense, the milk and 
honey, the fountains and orchards, which God hath 
ordained for the refreshment and delight of his 
fainting children ; of such as are poor in spirit, and 
hunger and thirst after righteousness, and desire no 
earthly promotion, no natural joy, so much as that 
their souls may drink abundantly from the fountain 
of goodness, the well of living waters, and that they 
may be filled, not with carnal delights and treasures, 
but with that holy peace which springs from the 
indwelling of the Spirit of God, and passeth all 
understanding. 

There are three worlds of which we read in Scrip- 
ture : this world, and heaven, and hell. Of this 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 291 

world alone have we any direct, sensible, personal ex- 
perience or knowledge now. All that we do know or 
that we can know of heaven and hell, while we con- 
tinue in the flesh, must be derived from revelation. 

This world is, we know, a mixed, uncertain, 
changeful, transient state — a place of perpetual 
conflict between light and darkness, good and evil. 
Hell is a place of unmixed evil and wretchedness, 
unimaginable and everlasting woe. Heaven is a 
place of pure and perfect blessedness, of ineffable 
glory and delight. 

Even this present evil world is beautiful ; though 
the abode of birds and beasts, of evil beasts and 
unclean birds, and hissing, hideous snakes, and foul 
and abominable creeping things ; though it is under 
the curse of God and under the dominion of sin, 
still, it is in many things a beautiful world. In the 
Greek tongue it has its name thence — Rocf/icx;, 
beauty, arrangement, order, harmony, ornament, 
honour, referring to the unnumbered prints of the 
Creator's beauty, still plainly to be seen upon it. 
And if this earth, defiled by sin, is so beautiful, 
what will the new heavens and the new earth be ? 
In them the goodness of God will have supreme 
dominion and unimpeded flow; its infinite riches 
will be poured forth in infinite profusion of beauty 
and joy. If the earth is robed with flowers, and 
laced with shining streams, and girdled with glori- 
ous mountains, and ramparted with the everlasting 
hills, and the munitions of rocks, and watered with 



292 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

streams from above and from below, and her dark 
places enriched with precious stones, with the lus- 
tre of pearls, and diamonds, and rubies ; if even the 
sands of the seas and the rivers are all ablaze with 
corals, and gems, and gold, if fragrant and beauti- 
ful blossoms grow wild and plentiful on every tree ; 
and the firmament overhead is crowned with a 
kingly diadem of stars, what must the new heavens 
and the new earth be ? 

Heaven is set forth to us in Scripture under the 
emblem of a marriage feast ; but to take away all gross 
conceptions, we are told that the glorified bodies of the 
risen saints will be spiritual. The pleasures of seeing 
and hearing, of all sensible delights the most refined 
and pure, and not unmixed with reason — delights 
of which the brutes appear to have no sense or rel- 
ish, are used to represent the blessedness of the 
heavenly state to our apprehension — thrones, palms, 
crow T ns, white raiment, bursts of choral melody, and 
songs of celestial gladness. Rev. vii. 13-17. These 
images, we know, are figurative, but they must be 
adapted to set forth the fundamental spiritual truth, 
and convey it with superior force and vividness to us 
— or " men who wrote as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost," would not have selected and employed 
them. 

All our conceptions of heavenly things must, of 
necessity, be conditioned by those sensible objects 
wherewith we are now surrounded. Hence, its 
happiness and glory are represented as consisting 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 293 

very much in the absence of sensible evils, all of 
which are in fact the fruits of sin. Thus it is 
affirmed that " God shall wipe away all tears from 
the eyes" of the redeemed. What image could be 
more tender and touching ? What more expressive 
of a father's sympathy ? The sorrows of the saints 
shall cease, not by necessity of nature, but by the 
grace of their heavenly Father. With soft and 
gentle hand he will wipe away the falling tear, and 
then a smile of gratitude and gladness shall spread over 
the happy faces of his favoured children — the voice 
of weeping be heard no more, nor the spectacle of 
tears be seen again. The saints will then be done 
with their sorrows for ever. All men, often the 
best men, experience bitter sorrows here. Those 
clothed in white raiment, which is the righteousness 
of the saints, with palms of victory in their hands, 
have come up out of great tribulation. Out of 
dark valleys, out of lowly depths, they go up to the 
mountain of the Lord's house, the Mount Zion of 
God. Here the living stones of the heavenly temple 
are quarried, and cut, and shaped, and fitted, to their 
predestined and proper place, and according to the 
beautiful accommodation of one of our admirable 
old Puritan divines,* as the stones that were to 
enter into the typical temple of Solomon, were 
hewn and chiselled afar off, so that no sound of the 
hammer was heard in the holy and beautiful house 

* Bates, to whom I am indebted for several valuable 
thoughts in this chapter. 
25* 



294 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

of Jehovah ; so the true children of the Most High, 
the living stones of the heavenly temple, are hewn 
by sorrows here, and then assume their places, pol- 
ished after the similitude of a palace, in the true 
tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man — 
the celestial temple, pervaded by uncreated light, 
not that of the sun or the moon, but of the Lamb, 
resounding through all its vast chambers, and 
vaulted dome, and pillared aisles, not with such 
melody as is heard on earth, but with the sweet and 
holy chants of angel-voices, harping on their harps 
of gold, to responsive choirs of blood- bought, happy 
souls, ascribing salvation to the Lamb that w T as 
slain. 

Then there shall be no more death. Death is 
now the king of terrors, the consummation and 
climax of earthly ills, in the apprehension of man- 
kind. There is nothing which they dread so much, 
and if they are not Christians, so justly ; for it cuts 
them off from every earthly blessing and consigns 
them to everlasting woe. But then death for our- 
selves or our dear friends is felt and feared no more. 
Now we dwell in the region and shadow of death, in 
a world in which death reigns naturally over every 
son and daughter of Adam. But that is the land 
of life and truly the land of the living. For there 
Christ who is, in the supremest sense, the Life, lives 
and reigns in all and over all. Christ himself, the 
original, full, perennial, over-flowing fountain of 
life, in the midst of the paradise of God, and as the 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 295 

four streams watered and made fruitful and bright 
and glad, the remotest borders of the earthly Eden. 
So this heavenly fountain, this true life, this 
anointed Saviour, our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, who is himself the essential and eternal life, 
will flow T forth in living streams of blessing and 
grace, of salvation and glory, over all the realms and 
provinces of the new heavens and the new earth. 

The destruction of death, which is the essence 
and issue of all other evils, ensures the termination 
of all the maladies which now afflict the body. How 
many drag a crazy, creaking, crumbling body, all 
their lives ! Now we are frail, vulnerable, exposed 
to a whole cohort of fevers, and to accidents and 
injuries without number or name. There it will not 
be so. Christ shall bestow on us a body as it shall 
please him, a better body and a more beautiful 
body than Adam's was in its first creation. His 
was a natural body. He had innocent infirmities. 
Ours will be a spiritual and glorious body, like that 
of Christ in heaven. The unbelieving scribes 
stumbled at this doctrine when our Lord taught it, 
not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. 
But why should we stumble at it ? Is any thing 
naturally impossible to omnipotence? Cannot God 
give us a spiritual body just as easily as he gave us 
a natural body ? The superior excellence of the 
work presents no difficulty to a divine Architect — an 
almighty Creator. 

Then all mental griefs, which are the most tor- 



296 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

meriting and terrible, will be ended, and the happiness 
of the soul will be perfect, for it will be akin to that 
of the blessed God himself. What is the nature 
of the happiness of God, and whence does it arise? 
It is a holy and supreme blessedness, and it arises 
from the full knowledge and enjoyment of his own 
infinite perfections. The happiness of the saints 
in glory will spring from the same inexhaustible 
source. The Lord is their portion. The author 
of their blessedness, the object of their adoration, 
is the supreme God in his manifested glory. The 
most comprehensive faculties of the soul, are the 
understanding and the will including the affections. 
How suitable a portion, this infinite Being to the 
soul of man ! 

The affections of man are a most sacred and 
priceless gift. By these he communes with his 
fellows and with his God. By these his heart 
softens at the recollection of the dead, and the strong 
man weeps like a little child. By these his intellect 
is prompted and fed, and to these it is mainly sub- 
servient. 

There is an inherent difference between the 
righteous and the wicked affections. A man whose 
mind is disordered, uneasy, embittered, will turn any 
the most indifferent and familiar action into matter 
of harsh censure and clamorous complaint. He 
will make himself and every one around him un- 
happy, by his sensitive and suspicious disposition, 
his sulky and querulous behaviour. His acid and 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 297 

abominable temper will turn every thing to sorrow ; 
especially, and by a just judgment of God, his own 
evil heart. A man whose soul is serene and loving 
and peaceful, will easily turn aside every untoward 
and provoking incident, so that its very quality 
shall seem changed. Hence the necessity of sanc- 
tification to heaven. Well, therefore, may we beg 
of God, to cast out all uncleanness, and all wrath 
and strife and envying, from our hearts. We know 
from our own experience, that to be happy we must 
be good; and that w T ell-disposed affections are the 
chief sources of true and lasting enjoyment. God 
has so constituted us, that we cannot be wicked 
without being wretched. Every blow inflicted on 
another recoils on ourselves. According to the 
striking oriental fiction, mentioned by Southey, in 
which a man has a serpent growing from between 
his shoulders, and finds to his horror that it is a part 
of himself, and every blow that falls on the serpent 
falls on himself. 

In fixing our affections upon God as their proper 
object, the perfection and blessedness of our spiritual 
nature will be attained. With regard to all men, 
to a lamentable extent, the forces and faculties of 
the soul, spiritual in their principle and nature, are 
sensual in respect both to their objects and appli- 
cation. Hence our confusion, disappointment, 
sorrow, and disgust. Hence weariness of life at- 
tended by the dread of death, a feeling of misspent 
labour and unsatisfied desire. 



298 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

In heaven, the noblest faculties of our spiritual 
nature will be directed toward a spiritual and per- 
fect object. They will be fixed on the everlasting 
God with ever-increasing wonder and delight. They 
will grow by what they gaze on. They will grow 
by what they feed on. Each added ray from that 
all-glorious orb, will strengthen and sharpen the 
spiritual organ. The powers of the soul will first 
be so purged and invigorated, as to be prepared for 
heaven ; for now we could not see God and live ; 
now we could not breathe in that pure air. There 
we shall be attempered to it, and rejoice in it, as in 
our native element. We shall move with immortal 
vigour and delight, amid scenes of celestial majesty 
and splendour. The nation of the saved will grow 
in power, in knowledge, in dignity, and in blessed- 
ness, throughout eternal ages. Now we can behold 
God only as his image is reflected in his works, and 
expressed in his word, as in a glass darkly ; then, 
we shall be admitted to the immediate intuition of 
his glory, the unveiled manifestation of his adorable 
person. God is a Spirit, therefore for ever invisible 
to the eye of sense ; and as he is an infinite Spirit, 
and we are finite, we shall never be able to find him 
out to perfection. We shall, indeed, behold him 
after a more wonderful and excellent manner, for 
we shall not only be with him, but be like him, 
for we shall see him as he is. 

The necessity of a spiritual regeneration may 
be argued and enforced from a consideration of the 



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 299 

nature and sources of the happiness of the saints in 
light. These joys are not sensual, or such as sen- 
sual persons are capable of tasting, but spiritual 
and holy. Without holiness no man shall see the 
Lord. Into the heavenly city nothing can enter 
that defileth. Without are dogs, and whoremongers, 
and adulterers, and drunkards, and all liars. Ye 
must be born again — from above, to partake of the 
divine delights of the new heavens and the new 
earth. They consist in a soul purified from all 
sinful dregs and defilements, and completely filled 
with the knowledge and fitted to the worship of the 
infinite and ever blessed God. Its supreme blessed- 
ness consists in the plenary enjoyments of God, 
and in conscious fellowship with his faithful ser- 
vants in their fervent and lofty praises. Without 
love we could not be happy in heaven. The love of 
God is the essential character of the heavenly city. 
Love is the cement that binds together heavenly 
minds. It is the gravitating law of the celestial 
sphere, which keeps them all in their proper orbits, 
and causes them to revolve in eternal harmony and 
gladness, around the great central Luminary — the 
Sun of Righteousness, the ornament and glory of the 
heavenly world — the Lord Jesus Christ, our most 
gracious Redeemer. 

It will make the joys of heaven the sweeter, to 
enter upon them after the troubles of this life — to 
pass from the confusion, the darkness, the disap- 
pointment, and the turmoil of earth, to the har- 



300 THE TRUE PATH, OR THE 

mony, the peace, the rest, the light, and the joy of 
heaven ! This idea of bliss in contrast with previ- 
ous privation or positive woe, and of the one as a 
preparation as well as a precursor of the other, is 
plainly held out to us in the images under which 
the blessedness of the righteous is at once veiled 
and revealed in the Scriptures. It is an untroubled 
and eternal Sabbatism, a rest that remaineth to the 
people of God. We feel our earthly Sabbaths all 
the more sacred and delightful, for the strifes, and 
secularities, and labours of the six preceding days. 
And we shall find our heavenly rest all the more 
welcome and dear, for the pains, and perils, and 
wanderings of earth; when we shall pass from earth to 
heaven, through death to life, from the gloom of the 
grave to that glorious city, w T here they have no 
need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it : 
for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb 
is the light thereof. 

It is a pleasure to him that hath been long tossed 
upon the sea, to gain the haven of repose ; a plea- 
sure to him that hath borne the strength and fury 
of battle, to lie down in the lap of peace ; a pleasure 
to him who hath endured the burden and heat of 
the day, to see the long-descending shadows of 
evening falling around him. And even to the mar- 
vellous delights of the heavenly Canaan will it add 
another and a higher zest, to taste them after hun- 
gering in the wilderness, after wandering in the 
desert. 



E 



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